If you’re in the Southwest, “severe weather” and “tornado” aren’t probably going to come up in your conversations very often, but the last month has brought these unusual phenomena (for the region) front and center.

Northern and eastern Arizona saw not just their first tornado watch in 16 years, but two such watches in two days. The heads-up alerts were later verified by an EF1 tornado southeast of Sedona.

Santa Fe, New Mexico, saw its first tornado in more than 50 years on Oct. 24. The EF1 twister damaged 10 homes and produced winds of 110 mph.

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(WATCH: Rare tornado uproots trees, damages homes in New Mexico) 

In total, five tornadoes have been confirmed, but several others were sighted and reported to the National Weather Service with little to no damage.

Earlier in the fall, an unusual high-elevation EF2 tornado touched down in southern Utah at more than 6,000 feet.

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Why all of the severe weather?

We often think of making s'mores in cold-weather spots this time of the year. But if you bring marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers to a warm weather spot, they’ll make the same s'mores, right?

This happens in weather, too.

As long as the ingredients for tornadoes and severe weather — wind shear, lift, instability and moisture — are in place, no matter the location, severe weather can occur.

This is exactly what has happened over the last few weeks across the Four Corners.

Wind shear and lift are often in place in the region, while instability and moisture can come and go. In October, several different tropical systems fed their moisture into the region and added instability and wind shear to the mix.

Hurricanes Polo and Rachel each brought unusual to record-setting moisture as their atmospheric DNA was swept from Mexico to the central U.S.

While El Niño likely didn’t have anything directly to do with spinning up the severe weather, it did likely help boost the chances of Polo and Rachel’s formation.

(MORE: Here are your odds of being hit by a tornado)

Severe weather can happen anywhere: be prepared

We typically think of tornadoes in Oklahoma or Kansas, but as Illinois (and now the Southwest) has shown this year, it just takes the weather ingredients or pattern for a typically quiet spot to become tornadic.

Every state has recorded tornadoes. But where twisters are uncommon or rare, the number of protection shields between you and a potential tornado is fewer. Here’s what you can do: 

• Make sure you activate wireless emergency alerts on your phone.
• Turn on real-time rain alerts and push messages in The Weather Channel app.
• Know the difference between a watch and a warning, and not just for tornadoes. Our rundown on NWS alerts is here.
• Know where your shelter is. The most interior room on the lowest dry floor of your home or another sturdy building is best for severe weather.
• For more on severe weather safety, see the tips from the NWS here.

Jonathan Belles has been a digital meteorologist for weather.com for 10 years. His favorite weather is tropical weather, but also enjoys covering high-impact weather and news stories and winter storms. He's a two-time graduate of Florida State University and a proud graduate of St. Petersburg College.