Warm spring to fuel severe weather

Climatologists have predicted that the ongoing trend of severe weather patterns in the Midwest will continue due to an unusually warm spring.

Kansas, Nebraska and western Texas likely will see above-average spring temperatures, fueled in part by warm ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, according to AccuWeather.com. The same phenomenon is likely to result in another active tornado season—which has already produced twice the normal number of tornadoes in the first three months of 2012—to follow a near-record-setting year in which 1,700 tornadoes struck the United States.

Central Texas and Texas’ Four Corners region, already stricken with drought, are projected to have another dry spring and summer.

Last year was a record one for natural disasters in the United States, with 12 exceeding $1 billion each in damages.