I’d consider Kansas and Oklahoma Tornado Alley, and Joplin’s so close that even if Missouri isn’t officially “in”, it’s close enough.
About five years ago, we had a similar spring around here. About once a week we’d end up in the storm shelter. We had to replace the siding on one side of house twice after it was peppered by hail.
And while big tornadoes are not an every-year occurrence in Mississippi and Alabama, they’re by no means unheard of. The outbreak that tore up those states was, however, exceptional in terms of just how many EF3+ tornadoes there were, and for a death toll of around 330, which is bigger than the infamous 1974 Super Tuesday outbreak. So this spring, we’ve had the “worst” tornado outbreak in almost 40 years, and one of the deadliest single tornadoes in at least that long (Joplin). And that’s not even counting the North Carolina tornadoes that killed over 20 people a few weeks before the MS/AL storms.
}:-)4
Don’t the tornadoes usualy start a little east of tornado alley before settling in to the west later in the season?