© G. Carbin / SPC
The severe weather of January 22-23, 2012.
If the numbers hold up, this month could be the third-busiest January since tornado record-keeping began in 1950.
So far this month, weather watchers have filed 70 tornado reports to the nation's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. When it comes to counting tornadoes, there are a number of caveats, but should the number of confirmed tornadoes approach the number of tornado reports, this month will trail only 2008 (with 88 tornadoes) and 1999 (with 218), as the most tornado-filled Januarys.
January tornadoes are not as common as spring tornadoes, but severe weather can
strike any time of year. This year's unusually warm winter has helped fuel January's severe weather in Dixie Alley, said one meteorologist. Tornadoes can form when warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with cool, dry Arctic air over the region.
"Right now, an unusually warm air mass has allowed us to have enough moisture far enough south," said meteorologist Aaron Gleason of the National Weather Service in Birmingham.
