Severe weather was at a record-low nationwide in June
Getting good news in 2020 is probably similar to the feeling that the guy from Cast Away had when the ship pulled up while he baked in the sun on the middle of a raft in the in the Pacific Ocean.
Our good news comes in the form of severe weather records. No, you didn't imagine it. Severe weather season over the past 2 months has nearly come to a screeching halt... relatively speaking. This after April, which got off to a very fast start!
Total severe weather reports in 2020 are down 20% from the 10 year average.
Total tornadoes are way down as well. Tornado reports are typically over 1,000 by this time of the year-- we're just over 800 as of the close of June. A deficit of ~18%.
June ended up being the big month or tornado records... or lack-of-tornado records. Nationwide, there was only ONE tornado that produce EF-2+ damage. That's the lowest number ever recorded in the month of June in 70 years of record-keeping!
Tornado watches broke a record too. Only 6 were issued by the Storm Prediction Center, the fewest ever in 50 years of records.
Meteorologists are pointing to persistent ridging/high pressure across the Rockies and troughing/low pressure across the mid-Atlantic which have squashed deep moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.
That moisture, which has had a lack of presence for much of the spring and early summer, is one of the key ingredients in the development of severe weather in the United States.
-Luke
