Five rare tornado emergencies were issued by the National Weather Service as tornadoes carved a deadly path through the US over the weekend.
Tornado emergencies are the most dire tornado warnings and are only issued when a tornado threatens catastrophic damage and loss of life, often in a populated area. Nearly 70,000 tornado warnings have been issued in the past 25 years, but just more than 300 have risen to the level of a tornado emergency, according to data from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.Â
There have already been 14 tornado emergencies in the US this year, including the five since Friday, with one in Texas and four in Kentucky.
On average, about a dozen tornado emergencies occur in the US each year, but that number is skewed significantly by the devastating 2011 severe season, which had 60. Only a handful of tornado emergencies happen in many years.
Four of the weekend’s tornado emergencies occurred on Sunday in Kentucky. The emergencies accounted for a fraction of the more than 100 tornado warnings issued by the National Weather Service that day.
Sunday marked the sixth day this year with 100 or more tornado warnings, the second-most on record for a single year. Only 2011 had more with nine days.
