Correction : 1st February almost tornado-free on record

[HURAKAN]

2010 Brings First Tornado-Free February

While the so-called Snowmageddon and Snowicane tm blizzards that book-ended the month got much of the nation's attention, not a single tornado was reported in the United States during February 2010.

According to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), no tornadoes were reported last month.

"It's a phenomenal feat that we went a month without a tornado," said AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity.

If the statistic stands, it would be the first tornado-free February in at least 60 years.

February typically has 22 tornadoes on average, based on reports dating back to 1950 from the SPC.

"Despite it being an El Nino year, which would normally mean severe weather in the South, the jet stream has been depressing cold air very far south and it has combined with cooler-than-normal Gulf of Mexico water temperatures," Margusity said. "These have led to the suppression of severe weather in February."

February's previous low was two tornado reports, occurring in both 1964 and 2002.

However, this would not be the first tornado-free month on record.

According to the SPC, only five months since 1950 have failed to turn in a tornado report: October 1952, December 1963, November 1976, January 1986 and January 2003.

While there were no tornadoes, there were 32 other reports of severe weather, according to the SPC. Nineteen severe wind events and 13 incidents of hail were reported.

[Hurricaneman]

thats either a good sign or march april and may have tornado swarms, im hoping it stays quiet

[tropicana]

thanks for that post Hurakan! good article, i really hadn't noticed but of course it stands to reason with all the cold air around that dominated the month , especially the Southern US, it was likely to keep down the episodes of severe tornadic weather.

[KWT]

Yeah the monster -ve AO which has caused very cold winter across a lot of the N.Hemisphere from 30-55N has shunted everything southwards this winter, so its hardly surprising that there as no tornadoes, once everything starts to ease back northwards then thing should light back up.

[srainhoutx]

What I do find interesting is the tornadoes in E/NE TX and W LA on Christmas Eve of 2009. The blocking regime as well as -AO were setting up at that time. Let's hope that the other side of the coin will not be an active March-May, but I suspect otherwise.

[KWT]

Yeah, I'm fully expecting a busy burst as I've been saying in the earlier part of the season once everything lifts up...still the weakening jet and the decaying -ve AO should help to provide some interesting times IMO.

[tropicana]

they actually corrected this article.... as there was a late report of a tornado touched down 15 miles North-east of Taft, California on February 27, it was weak and lasted just 3 minutes, causing no damage and was rated EF-0. It has been the only tornado reported in the US all month..the last tornado was on January 24 in North-central Tennessee.

-justin-

[RL3AO]

Thats even more impressive that the only tornado was in California.

[CrazyC83]

Thats even more impressive that the only tornado was in California.

That's not uncommon in the winter months, since that is their prime season (although strong tornadoes are rare in California and violent tornadoes almost unheard-of). But it sucks that it had to break what was a tornado-free month!