According to data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, during March, there were 13 preliminary tornado reports compared to the 1991-2010 average of 80. This marks the third lowest March tornado count in the 1950-present period of record and the lowest since 1969. Tornado activity typically increases in March and reaches its peak in late spring or early summer. During March, most of the tornadoes occurred during a single outbreak on March 25th when nine tornadoes were reported in eastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas. One fatality was reported outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma where an EF-2 tornado hit a mobile home. This was the first tornado-related fatality of 2015.

Continuing a pattern that has been observed since 2012, 2015 was off to a slow start in terms of observed tornadoes. For the January-March period, according to preliminary counts, there were just 41 tornadoes. This is below the 1991-2010 average of 144. This is also one of the five slowest starts to a tornado year since records began in 1950 and the slowest since 1969.

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Citing This Report

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Monthly Tornadoes Report for March 2015, published online April 2015, retrieved on March 28, 2024 from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/tornadoes/201503.