Cass County listed in top 10 in tornadic activity

Cass County was listed nine of the top 50 cities in Texas for tornadic activities by Stacker (A website that pulls in and parses statistics from a variety of sources). In this case “Stacker used data from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information to find the counties in Texas that have experienced the most tornadoes since 2000.”

“It’s been a busy year for tornadoes in the U.S. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as many as 1,155 twisters have touched down across the country since the start of the year, above the average for this time of year.”

According to NOAA data, Cass County only shows two tornados in their database, an EF1 on March 2 in Huffines, and an EF0 on April 5 listed in Carterville that caused damage to Laws Chapel. However, there was at least one more this year (EF2) on June 15 that touched down in Atlanta, Queen City, and Domino causing damage to buildings and vehicles.

According to Stacker, “A single day can drive up tornado counts. March 31, 2023, accounted for 163 tornadoes across the Midwest and South.”

“Tornado activity usually peaks in the spring and early summer, and the pace of tornadoes usually slows around late summer. A smaller-scale second tornado season emerges in the fall, mostly in the Gulf Coast states.”

“Stacker used data from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information to find the counties in Texas that have experienced the most tornadoes since 2000. While data is available going back to 1950, tornado tracking by the National Weather Service became more robust and accurate in the 1990s. Since counties can vary in size, they are ranked by the number of tornadoes per 100 square miles. Counties that experienced less than five tornadoes are not included.”

You would think that with the increased tornadic activity the top 10 counties listed would have all been listed in the infamous “Tornado Alley”, however, that’s not true. “When adjusted for county area, the top 10 counties that experienced the most tornadoes since 2000 are from nine different states, all in the Southeast with the exception of Cleveland County, Oklahoma.”

That said, “Research has shown that Tornado Alley is shifting due to warming temperatures fueled by climate change. In the future, the Southeast could become the region that receives the bulk of the country’s tornadoes.”

The top five in the State according to their statistical observations are Harrison #5, Johnson #4, Tarrant #3, Rockwall #2, and Galveston #1.