Wasn't the quietness of the tropical season due to a dust plume off of Africa? I have heard that multiple times now.

It definitely played a role for sure.

Yet the 2013 season, for the OKC metro, was the worst in history. When you combine the casualties of the May 20th storm and the May 31st storm I believe it was greater than May 3, 1999. The property damage this year blew 1999 out of the park.

Hopefully 2014 is a bit quieter for the metro.

It was a significant year here, definitely. If you are worried about just human casualties then yes when you combine them they are obviously going to top May 3rd. However, injuries where much higher in May 3rd than the two events combined as far as I know. Really...we should be saying 3 events. May 19th had an EF-4 tornado that started in Norman and moved into Pott County. They are still part of the metro area the last I checked.

What will next year bring? Hard to say. Will we have a tornado in the metro area in 2014? More than likely yes. Statistically the OKC metro area sees 8 per year.

It was a significant year here, definitely. If you are worried about just human casualties then yes when you combine them they are obviously going to top May 3rd. However, injuries where much higher in May 3rd than the two events combined as far as I know. Really...we should be saying 3 events. May 19th had an EF-4 tornado that started in Norman and moved into Pott County. They are still part of the metro area the last I checked.

What will next year bring? Hard to say. Will we have a tornado in the metro area in 2014? More than likely yes. Statistically the OKC metro area sees 8 per year.

How many tornadoes EF3 and greater does the OKC metro area statistically see per year?

How many tornadoes EF3 and greater does the OKC metro area statistically see per year?

F3/EF3 = 31
F4/EF4 = 15
F5/EF5 = 5

Those numbers include this year (1 EF3, 1 EF4, and 2 EF5s)...so that is 51 strong/violent tornadoes over the last 63 years. Roughly less than one per year on average...but close enough statistically to assume at least 1. I would argue as the metro area's population continues to sprawl out and develop, the number of higher rated tornadoes will go up simply because there is more stuff to chew up.