Severe weather season begins at near-record pace in March, April
Peoria, Ill. (WMBD) — The start of the 2025 severe weather season is off to a near record start thanks to repeated rounds of severe storms in March and early April. Even in Illinois, our tornado count is quickly approaching out yearly average and peak tornado season has just begun.
According to the Storm Prediction Center there have been 492 preliminary tornado reports across the country in 2025. Mississippi with 92 tornado reports leads the way with Missouri and Illinois following behind with 57 and 55 reports respectively.
These reports from SPC are just preliminary and the actual number of confirmed tornadoes is likely a bit less. For instance, the National Weather Service in Lincoln says that so far there have only been 43 confirmed tornadoes across the state of Illinois. The discrepancy comes duplicate reports of the same tornado or gustnadoes that have been misidentified. The official count comes after the NWS has gone out and completed damage surveys to verify where tornadoes have actually occurred.
Based on SPC's preliminary reports, this is the third fastest start to tornado season since 2010. Through April 8th, the country experienced 536 tornadoes in 2017, 530 tornadoes in 2023, and 492 in 2025.
The fast start to severe weather season hasn't been overly surprising as the Spring Outlook suggested an active pattern, and a pattern that's likely to continue. Research has linked La Niña winters, which we experienced this winter, to increased tornado activity across portions of the Midwest.
In a 2017 blog on Climate.gov, the ENSO Blog team was able to show how both El Niño and La Niña tend to influence the environment for hail and tornadoes. This research found that more favorable environments for tornadoes and hail were more frequent across the Mississippi River Valley during a La Niña influenced pattern compared to El Niño.
We've had a nice break for severe weather this week but the pattern could once again turn more favorable for severe weather towards the later half of the month, so enjoy it while it's here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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