March begins our region's three most active months for tornadoes

With the observation of Severe Weather Awareness Week in Kentucky, and with the area's first tornado on the ground in Graves County on Friday, it's not a coincidence that the month of March is our third busiest of the year for tornadoes.

The National Weather Service in Paducah compiled thirty years of local tornado data for their service area. Of the 881 tornadoes here since 1995, nearly half of all tornadoes each year occur in April (210) and May (192).

But 97 tornadoes have also happened here in March. 

And the same data shows that a higher number of the more violent EF2 and EF3 storms occur during the spring.

Seventy percent of the world's tornadoes occur in the United States, mostly in the central plains.

"Tornado Alley" has traditionally been considered to be in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, but some researchers believe that area has been shifting eastward.

Depending on how the statistics are presented, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois are all frequently included on lists of the top ten tornado states.