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It Only Takes One: Why You Should Be Prepared Every Year For Tornadoes and Hurricanes

At a Glance

Deadly tornadoes aren't always associated with large-scale severe weather outbreaks.
Preseason hurricane forecasts can't tell you how impactful to land a season will be.
Multiple hurricanes could make landfall or none at all.

Meteorologists at The Weather Channel have used the phrase "it only takes one" for years, applying it to forecasts for both hurricane season as well as the potential for tornado-producing thunderstorms.

The intention of those four words, when used in conjunction with hurricane season, is to communicate that coastal residents should be prepared equally each and every year. Forecasts may call for a below-, near- or above-average hurricane season, but no matter how active or inactive a season may be, it's where tropical storms or hurricanes track in relation to land that matters most.

(MORE: 2018 Hurricane Season Forecast)

For tornadoes, it's relevant to a day when a widespread severe weather outbreak is not expected, but localized destructive and/or deadly impacts still occur.

Here are a couple of examples of how this applies.

Deadly Tornadoes Don't Occur Just in Large Severe Weather Outbreaks

The day after Christmas 2015 there was a smattering of 25 to 30 severe weather reports in the south-central United States, nothing that would seem too overwhelming at a quick glance. For comparison, a large outbreak of severe weather can feature several hundred reports of wind damage and large hail as well as several tornadoes.

The red outlines show tornado warnings that were issued in north-central Texas Dec. 26, 2015. (NOAA)

A closer inspection of north-central Texas that day, however, fits the bill of "it only takes one".

Among the few severe reports on Dec. 26, 2015, was an EF4 rated tornado that tore a 13-mile path through the northeast suburbs of Dallas. The twister killed 10 people, and nine of those deaths occurred when vehicles were struck at the intersection of Interstate 30 and the President George Bush Turnpike.

Eleven other tornadoes touched down in north-central Texas that day, including two killer tornadoes which brought the death toll up to 13.

This was a high-impact tornado event on a day when severe weather was not particularly widespread. It once again illustrates that you should never let your guard down even on days when the threat of severe weather is not at extreme levels.

(MORE: Tornado Central)

Hurricane Season That Defied the Odds

Six named storms and one subtropical storm roamed the Atlantic basin in the 1992 hurricane season. In terms of just numbers, that would qualify as a "quiet" hurricane season because it's well below the 30-year average (1981-2010) of 12 named storms per season in the Atlantic.

Hurricane Andrew tore through South Florida as a Category 5 and then made a second landfall in southern Louisiana as a Category 3 in August 1992.

One of those storms, however, was Category 5 Hurricane Andrew, which raked South Florida where it caused devastating wind damage.

About 125,000 homes were damaged or destroyed by Andrew. At the time, Andrew was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

Andrew is just one of three hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S. at Category 5 strength. It defied the odds by also striking in the least active Atlantic hurricane season in the last 30 years.

It can go the other way too, with a season having numerous hurricanes that all steer away from the U.S. The 2010 Atlantic season, for example, featured 12 hurricanes, but none of them brought significant impacts to the Lower 48.

All of this provides proof that you can't judge impacts from a hurricane season based on the number storms forecast before the season begins.

(MORE: Hurricane Central)