Over the last few days, the southern United States has endured a significant severe weather event that took the lives of a still increasing number of people. While many communities are still trying to sift through the wreckage, meteorologists, “meteorologists”, chasers, and other weather enthusiasts have taken to Facebook and Twitter to discuss what has happened. Unfortunately, a lot of misinformation is floating around. Here’s my quick attempt to clarify some of this information.

As of this writing, 248 preliminary tornadoes have been reported via the Storm Prediction Center’s Preliminary Storm Report webpage over the three days 14-16 April 2011. Much has been made about this number. Unfortunately this number contains many duplicate tornadoes, and potentially even some tornadoes that never were. Hence the label “Preliminary”. Over the next few weeks, National Weather Service Offices throughout the south will be conducting damage surveys to determine the number of actual tornadoes to the best of their ability. There is no doubt that this has been a significant three-day tornado outbreak. However, until the official numbers are released via the National Weather Service’s Storm Data publication, people should exercise extreme caution in trying to quantify where this week’s severe weather outbreak ranks in history.

It used to be the case that the preliminary number of tornadoes underestimated the number of actual tornadoes. However, near March of 2006 the pattern reversed itself with the number of preliminary tornadoes typically overestimating the number of actual tornadoes. For more information regarding preliminary vs. final tornado reports, please read this blog post on the topic by Harold Brooks, which can be found on the United States Severe Weather Blog.

In 2008, the final tornado count was roughly 75-80% of the preliminary count. Based on the number of spotters now reporting tornadoes, it’s not out of the question to assume this ratio is now closer to 70%, if not lower. Based on this an estimated guess to the number of final tornadoes might be closer to 198 (80%), 186 (75%), or even 173 (70%). Since I know people want to know below are the top three-day tornado counts on record using the final tornado numbers. The date given is the last day of the three days used in the count.