JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Nationwide 10 people died as a direct result of injuries inflicted by a tornado, according to the Storm Prediction Center. That’s far below the national average of 69 annual tornado fatalities.
You can say better warnings and tornado safety education played a part in this past years' lack of killer tornadoes.
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The season also had no violent EF 4 and 5 tornadoes, adding to the downturn.
Out of the 44 tornadoes in Florida in 2018, there were not deaths, but some injuries. The Jacksonville area witnessed the strongest tornado on record in December when an EF3 tore across Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay injuring five people.
Their database, which dates back to 1940, shows the last tornado fatality in Florida was due to an EF2 in Manatee county in 2016.
The last death from a tornado in North Florida happened in 2001 when Tropical Storm Allison made landfall in Louisiana. A tornado killed a person in the Hillcrest neighborhood on Jacksonville's Westside.
Half of this year’s tornado deaths occurred in November or December.
Florida averages more tornadoes per year -- 59 compared to Georgia’s 26 -- because of the increased number of tropical cyclones that impacts Florida.
Yet the Sunshine State falls far short of Texas’s average of 140 per year, the most in the nation.