314 SEVERE WEATHER REPORTS, YET WE STILL DODGED A BULLET...

Considering the dynamics in place, we got out of a Saturdays' severe weather setup in pretty good shape. Much of my area was placed in a PDS (particularly dangerous situation) tornado watch during the afternoon and evening,...the first of its kind in some spots since 2008. Overall, 18 tornadoes were reported by the Storm Prediction Center...a drop in the bucket compared to the suggested potential. 314 severe weather reports were registered around the country.

You will notice below that there was a large tornado reported near Littleton, Iowa in Buchanan, County. Meteorologist Nick Stewart of KGAN and I were on that storm. While we missed the tornado by a few minutes we did arrive in Oelwein, Iowa shortly after a tornado did damage on the west side of town. The NWS is performing a damage survey on that storm and another near Cambridge, Illinois.

Another perspective of severe weather reports.

Here's a picture of one of the tornadoes in NE Iowa from Paula Back.

Katie Bauska took this shot of a tornado just south of Hudson. I was about 18 miles south at the time.

Some of the damage we saw in Oelwein where an apartment complex was damaged.

Tornado numbers nationally are at the 75 percentile for this point in the year, running well above normal!

For what it's worth, parts of my area have already experienced 2 tornado watches and were still in March. The season is off to a fast start and I think this could be an active year for twisters and severe storms. Hopefully, our luck avoiding large destructive tornadoes holds as it did on Saturday. We dodged a bullet. Roll weather...TS