NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
Visit:NCEI U.S. Tornadoes
July 2022 Tornado Occurrences
Source: SPC
According to data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, during July, there were 71 preliminary tornado reports. This was about 53 percent of the 1991-2010 average of 134 tornadoes for the month of July. Tornadoes were reported on 18 of the 31 days during the month. Only three of the days reported tornado counts of 10 or more.
The first notable tornado days were July 5 and 6, as a combined 20 preliminary tornadoes were reported. These tornadoes were scattered across numerous states including eastern Colorado, eastern Iowa, southern Nebraska, Virginia and Maryland. During this two-day period most of these tornadoes were rated as either EF-1 or EF-0, but there was also one EF-2 tornado in Clermont County, Ohio. The town of Goshen, Ohio was particularly impacted as numerous homes, businesses, vehicles, schools, one fire station and other infrastructure were damaged. In total, over 150 structures were damaged in Goshen. There were also several injuries, but there were no fatalities.
The other notable tornado day during a relatively quiet tornado month occurred on July 22 when 19 tornadoes tracked through northwestern Kansas, eastern North Dakota and northeastern Illinois. One this day, these were EF-0 and EF-U tornadoes producing minor damage to crops, irrigation systems, agriculture outbuildings and other infrastructure. There were no reported injuries or fatalities from these tornadoes.
Did You Know?
Tornado Count
Final monthly tornado counts are typically less than the preliminary count. This can be due to some phenomena being inaccurately reported as tornadic activity or a single tornado being reported multiple times. Tornado accounts are reported to the local National Weather Service forecast offices who are responsible for going into the field and verifying each tornado reported. This process often takes several months to complete. Once all reports have been investigated, the final count is published by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC).
The Tornado Monthly Climate Reports are written using the preliminary numbers because the final data is not available at the time of production. Historically, for every 100 preliminary tornado reports, at least 65 tornadoes are confirmed. An error bar is depicted on the tornado count graphic representing this uncertainty in the preliminary tornado count.
The following U.S. studies performed by SPC meteorologists offer deeper context and discussion regarding the frequency and distribution of tornado intensity climatologies:
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Edwards, R., H. E. Brooks, and H. Cohn, 2021: Changes in tornado climatology accompanying the Enhanced
Fujita scale. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 60, 1465-1482
DOI: 10.1175/JAMC-D-21-0058.1. - Mccarthy, Daniel & Schaefer, Joseph. (2004). Tornado trends over the past thirty years. paper presented at 14th Conference on Applied Meteorology.