No tornado deaths in April-May-June for first time since record-keeping began

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ It was a quiet spring in Tornado Alley. <br/><br/>For the first time since record-keeping started in 1950, no one was killed by a tornado in April, May or June. <br/><br/>Normally

Tuesday, July 5th 2005, 2:26 pm

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ It was a quiet spring in Tornado Alley.

For the first time since record-keeping started in 1950, no one was killed by a tornado in April, May or June.

Normally those are the top months for tornadoes with an average of 52 fatalities, sometimes many more.

Joe Schaefer, director of NOAA's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, says it's been an unusual tornado season. Schaefer says storms never really formed over the major cities in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota that lie in Tornado Alley.

April was about average with 137 tornadoes but they were primarily in southern areas. May was way below average with 134 tornadoes. While there were 299 twisters in June, they mainly occurred in northern regions such as Wisconsin and Minnesota.