In this space yesterday, I talked about the randomness of storms. There is, however, truth and a logical explanation why Otter Tail County has more storms.
Otter Tail County has recorded more tornadoes than any other county in Minnesota. You would think that it would be a county in the southern part of the state, where there is more warm, moist air available to fuel a tornado.
The high tornado count has nothing to do with the large number of lakes in the county. What it comes down to is size. Otter Tail County is one of the largest counties in the state, making it a bigger target. The enormous counties in the arrowhead rarely see tornados due to their proximity to Lake Superior, so they can't rival Otter Tail County in number.
If Grant, Douglas, Stevens and Pope counties just to the south combined, they would nearly equal Otter Tail in size and would take the top spot for the number of tornadoes.
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