Typically severe weather season for the Midwest and the Four States is April through June, though it’s more common than you think to have tornados at the start of winter. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

The severity of the damage is still being assessed from the devastating tornadoes that tore through Kentucky, Arkansas, Illinois, and Missouri on Friday night. So far investigators from the National Weather Service have yet to announce an EF rating for the storm that tore through Mayfield, Kentucky.

Normally, we consider springtime, not winter to be the most active time for tornadoes but according to Gene Hatch of the National Weather Service in Springfield severe weather can happen any month of the year. “Well, for the Midwest area, and for portions of Kansas and Missouri, and the Missouri valley really, we can see tornadoes any time of the year, and we have seen tornadoes any month of the year.” Residents of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri likely remember the three-day cluster of tornadoes that took place on December 28, 2010, through January 1, 2011. The strongest was an EF-3 with winds as high as 80 miles per hour. One storm destroyed 159 homes, causing $90 million in damage. For 89 9 KRPS, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro