As Iowa saw a later winter this year, residents may wonder if we’ll see a later tornado season as well.

The National Weather Service recently released the 2018 Iowa Tornado Summary, which states the first tornado of the year did not occur until May 3rd, nearly a month later than usual. The report states a total of 69 tornadoes occurred last year, an increase from 55 in 2017. Higher rated tornadoes were also seen last year with two EF3 storms that occurred in Pella and Marshalltown on July 19th, the biggest outbreak since November of 2015 with 21 tornadoes.

Adair and Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Kempf says predictions on this year’s tornado season can be precarious and more difficult to track than winter weather, “What the weather service (does) is they track something that is falling in the jetstream and if gets a weakening in it at any point, we always have this southerly flow in the summertime and it can push up and under it and you can take a storm track and move it two counties away in a 15 minute period, so you don’t know!”

The monthly peak of tornadoes in 2018 was July, followed by October, June, and September. The time of day most tornadoes occurred was 2 p.m. To hear more from Kempf on how to prepare and respond to severe weather, listen to today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County on air and at raccoonvalleyradio.com.