Simple tornado preparations

Five simple tips for staying safe during a tornado.

As the summer winds down, so too do the chances for wild weather, but for the 17 million residents of Tornado Alley, tornadoes are still very much a reality.

According to the NOAA, May is actually the most active month of the year for tornadoes with an average of 276 across the U.S. By September, the number drops to an average of 74. According to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center, there were only 85 preliminary reports of tornadoes in July as compared to the 1991-2010 average of 134 for the same month. The NOAA says there have been a total of 309 tornadoes across the country including 130 in June and 113 in April, so 2014 is tracking to be a much more quiet year. In 2013 there were 908 tornadoes, with 939 in 2012, and a deadly 1691 in 2011. That was the year Joplin, Mo. was hit by an EF5 tornado that killed approximately 160 people and caused over $2 billion in insured losses.