Exciting Start to 2012

January 2012 is already starting off with a bang.  So far there has been 690 storm reports for January this year which includes 110 tornado reports, 469 wind reports, and 111 hail reports.  Of those tornado reports at least 82 of them are official tornado touchdowns.  Here are a few images of some of the most active days in January from SPC storms reports: 






Pretty fascinating to have such an active month in the middle of winter, but how does that add up to 2011 which ones one of the most active severe weather years in history.  The number of storm reports for January 2011 are 101 which including 10 tornado reports, 79 wind reports, 12 hail reports.  Of those tornado reports at least 1 is official with the possibility of adding about 3 or 4 more from a small Florida outbreak.  When doing a comparison between January 2011 to January 2012 there have been almost 7 times more storm reports for January 2012 than January 2011.

So, is this a precursor of an active year like 2011 or maybe more active?  Hard to say right now and far too early to tell, but it is noticeable that this year is starting off much warmer than last year with shots of cold air hitting the Southeast region.  February is starting off active like January so we shall see how things go.