I did some looking.

A typical US Tornado season is around 800 confirmed tornados and about 82 fatalities (roughly 80 yr average).

So far we have 1,170 reported tornados (835 confirmed) and over 400+ fatalities this year and more storms are expected.

While much higher than the norm for the past 30 yrs and not consistent with recent downward trends in fatalities the number and severity of storms is not outside of the range of weather patterns seen in the past. We just have better detection capabilities and a lot more people in the areas affected.

I also learned that my home state historically has the greatest number of F5 tornados per square mile!!! I need to go look at my hidey hole in the basement again and see if I am paranoid enough.

-Eric