Tornados, and history

The historic 2011 tornado season has quieted in June, and so far only three deaths have been added to the annual total.

However, the 537 death toll makes this the deadliest year since 1936, and as we mentioned in today's Inquirer story, in that era the government had banned the word "tornado" from forecasts, lest it incite panic.

By any measure, in a period of wild weather, this has been a tragic and monumental season, the likes of which we may not see again in our lifetimes.

Veteran meteorologists at the government's Storm Prediction Center are still trying to make sense of it and put it into some historical perspective.

In all, 85 percent of the deaths -- 458 -- occurred on just two days: April 27, in the Southeast outbreak, and May 22, in Joplin.

Looking at the before-and-after aerial photographs of the Joplin twister, it is clear that it took it deadly path across densely developed areas.

Harold Brooks, a researcher with the National Severe Storms Laboratory, in the same building with the storm center, wondered if some of the more than 140 victims might have been Sunday afternoon shoppers in big-box stores.

The Joplin tornado acted alone. By contrast, on April 27 more than 300 tornados attacked the Southeast.

Here is a summary of the Alabama outbreak, and aerial images over Tuscaloosa.