I apologize that this week’s answer is a day late. I was traveling yesterday and unable to access the Internet. But without further adieu, here is this week’s answer.

• Since 1950, how many (official) tornadoes have occurred in January?

  • There have been 1193 tornadoes during the month of January in the 60 years spanning 1950 to 2009. This equates to an average of 19.88 tornadoes per year in January. Broken down by rating:
  • F/EF-Unknown: 30
  • F/EF-0: 391
  • F/EF-1: 443
  • F/EF-2: 251
  • F/EF-3: 67
  • F/EF-4: 11
  • F/EF-5: 0

As you can see, 1999 was a very active year in terms of January tornadoes. There were several tornado outbreaks that January, including the largest January outbreak on record, which affected parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.