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Since the start of the year, we have had about 50 tornadoes in Arkansas--nearly double the amount we see in an average year.
Weather experts say the La Niña weather pattern--which is an abnormal cooling of the eastern Pacific Ocean water--is likely to blame.
It may also explain why some of the storms have been so strong--including an EF-4 tornado that tracked through Clinton and Mountain View in February.
(John Lewis, National Weather Service (web|news) ) “Less than 2% of all tornadoes are that strong, and to have one like that--and then to follow it up with one like the one we had in Damascus and then Stuttgart--that's just so rare. That never happens, but that is typical for this year.”
The National Weather Service says the record for most tornadoes in a single year in Arkansas was set in 1999, when a similar weather pattern spawned 107 twisters.
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