As of May 30, it has been nearly a week since a tornado has touched down in Iowa.

But given the frequency with which the state has been bombarded with tornadoes in May, you’d be forgiven for thinking it has felt longer than that.

All throughout May, lines of strong storms — including at least one invoking the term “derecho” that has been front of mind for some since 2020 — have punished Iowa on a regular basis.

The result is a tornado season that already is in the record books — and, with seven months left in 2024, a year that might end up being Iowa’s most ever for twisters.

How many tornadoes have hit Iowa so far in 2024?

It takes some time for the National Weather Service to verify and confirm tornado reports, including extensive on-the-ground surveys of damage any potential tornado may have caused. The full number of tornadoes from recent outbreaks may not be completely known for several months.

But the data we do have so far paints a historic picture: According to event summaries from weather service offices in Omaha, Sioux Falls, Des Moines and the Quad Cities, at least 80 tornadoes have hit Iowa so far in 2024.

Since 1950 — as far back as National Weather Service tornado archives go — Iowa had never seen 80 tornadoes in the first five months of the year.

That count blows past the previous January-May mark of 64 set in 2004. (Iowa typically averages about 19 tornadoes through May each year.)

In fact, 2024 already ranks among the top 10 years with the most tornadoes in Iowa’s history.

The state’s not in danger of breaking that ignominious record yet; there’s a long way to go to reach the 146 tornadoes recorded in 2021, most of which came during the derecho event in mid-December of that year.

Have tornadoes been stronger this year?

Several particularly severe tornadoes have stood out among the 80 that have struck Iowa so far, including an EF-4 tornado that hit Greenfield on May 21 and an EF-3 tornado that hit Minden on April 26.

The EF scale, or Enhanced Fujita scale, is a way of measuring tornado strength based on assessed damage in the aftermath of the storm. The damage surveys conducted by the weather service can be used to estimate wind speeds for tornadoes.

The Minden tornado was estimated to have wind speeds peaking around 165 mph; the Greenfield tornado was estimated between 175 and 185 mph at its most severe.

It’s not uncommon for Iowa as a whole to experience an EF-4 tornado at some point throughout the year. This is the third year in a row that at least one has touched down in the state.

More: ‘Somehow I’m here’: Neighbors say four people died in powerful Greenfield tornado

The five EF-3 tornadoes so far this year are the most in a calendar year since 1999 — when the original Fujita scale was still in use. (It was adjusted to the EF scale in 2007.)

More: Years-long recovery ahead for Minden: ‘Hard to believe’ what tornado destroyed, what’s intact

Overall, however, while there have been somewhat more EF-1 tornadoes and somewhat fewer EF-2 and EF-0 tornadoes in 2024, the range of tornado strengths reported so far this year roughly aligns with historical data.

This has already been one of the deadliest tornado seasons on record in Iowa

The weather service says six people have died in Iowa so far this year as a result of tornadoes, including five in the EF-4 that struck Greenfield on May 21. That makes this Iowa’s fifth-deadliest tornado season since 1950.

More than six tornado-related deaths have been reported just four other times:

• In 2022, when an EF-4 tornado near Winterset killed six and another death was reported in Chariton;

• In 2008, when the state’s last EF-5 tornado struck Parkersburg, resulting in nine of the year’s 13 tornado fatalities;

• In 1979, when tornadoes killed seven;

• And in 1968, when 18 people died during a May 15 outbreak that spawned five F-5 tornadoes.

The 40 tornado-related injuries reported so far this year are also among the most in recent memory: There haven’t been that many injuries from tornadoes in a single calendar year since 2008.

Tim Webber is a data visualization specialist for the Register. Reach him at twebber@registermedia.com and on Twitter at @HelloTimWebber.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa 2024 tornadoes: How many, how strong and how deadly they’ve been