LET'S TALK SEVERE WEATHER...

This year has been quite active across the country in terms of rain and severe weather. There have been nearly 14,000 reports of severe weather (wind, hail, and tornadoes) in the last seven months.

Out of those reports there have been around 1300 tornadoes in the U.S. so far.

That's trending above normal by over 200 tornadoes... There have been 33 tornadoes in Iowa in 2019 - 17 below the average of 50 tornadoes per year.

Luckily most of the tornadoes have been weak - 88% of them have been EF-0 or EF-1. The last tornado in the state was on June 17th. This is still peak season for tornadoes in the Upper Midwest. Here's the tornado climatology for mid July -

However, the chances for tornadoes and severe weather in general is looking low - which is great news. The time frame in the coming week where there's a chance for strong to severe thunderstorms in the Upper Midwest will be Tuesday night through Wednesday. Here's the current risk from the Storm Prediction Center...

Of course severe weather and tornadoes can occur any time of year and we'll continue to keep an eye on things... but tornadoes, severe wind and severe hail has been below normal in the Upper Midwest.

RK