Fewer tornado deaths so far this year

NORMAN, Okla., June 30 (UPI) -- Weaker storms and plain old luck have meant a lower number of deaths from tornadoes so far this year, U.S. meteorologists said.

Peak season for tornadoes ends this week with 21 deaths confirmed in the United States so far. That compares with 121 deaths by this time last year, the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said.

The United States averages about 770 tornadoes through mid-June, with 690 reported so far.

Several things contributed to fewer deaths, Greg Forbes, a meteorologist with The Weather Channel, told USA Today in a story published Tuesday.

Storms were weaker and the early migration of the jet stream northward made tornadoes in the southern and central Plains less likely, Forbes said.

Then there was the luck factor, said Harold Brooks, a meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla. "To have killer tornadoes, you have to have them hit populated areas,"

Brooks said. "We've been a little below the average for the number of tornadoes, and they haven't hit where people have been."