Interesting tornado numbers & record heat

Halfway through the month of June and if you didn't know any better, you might think it's July or August. So much heat and it's not just Kansas. Look at this map showing how much of the country is above normal. The ridiculously hot temperatures extend all the way across the High Plains and into the Dakotas. Cooler than normal weather has been limited to the Great lakes and the Northeast.

In fact, Dodge City is recording a record warm stretch from the beginning of May through the early part of June. Average high temperature is almost to 90°.

I don't see any big cool stretches coming up for Kansas, but there is a chance next week won't be as hot as what we've had lately.

Are we still on track for record low tornadoes?
A few weeks ago we talked about the possibility. Since then, the atmosphere has warmed up and we've started to get severe weather. PRELIMINARY, we've had 34 tornadoes in Kansas. That number may change up or down depending on further investigation, but we have more than Oklahoma and Texas combined.

We have had a slight uptick in the number of tornadoes across the country over the last month, but we are still tracking WELL below the normal threshold. Normal number of tornadoes (across the country) to this point in June would be about 894. In 2018 so far, we are looking at 480. That's not very many when you get down to it and think about how much real estate we are talking about. 

 The graph above shows the trend compared to recent years. The solid black line down toward the bottom is where we are now. And if you look for the dotted black line, you'll see that's considered "normal" for tornado count.