John Wheeler: It's May, so where have the storms been?

FARGO — Spring is almost over and there has been absolutely no severe thunderstorm activity across eastern North Dakota or northwestern Minnesota. Although it is not unusual for our region to get some severe storms in April or early May, the big storms usually start happening later in May. The most active months are June, July and August.

Across the nation, there was not very much severe weather until about three weeks ago. Since then, severe storms have been exploding every few days across the central United States. The sudden uptick in tornadoes to the south is not an indicator of the amount of severe weather we will have this summer. However, last summer was extremely quiet, storm-wise, in our region. So, it is certainly likely there will be an increase in severe storms this summer.