Has 2010 Featured More Tornadoes Than Recent Years?

...After an event like the one this past weekend, its easy to say "yes" definitely.

In reality, the short answer is NO.  Not even close.

Here are the tornado numbers through the end of April since 2000:

2000:   309
2001:   206
2002:   168
2003:   221
2004:   186
2005:   236
2006:   460
2007:   410
2008:   549
2009:   383
2010:   153

2010 has been the least active tornado season in at least 10 years.  The tornado trend map below really tells the story.  The "79" at the bottom is this year's tornado number before this weekend's event.