Mapped: This year's raging class of twisters

Data: Storm Prediction Center ; Note: "Preliminary" reports are eyewitness storm reports issued shortly after an event before being verified. Map: Danielle Alberti/Axios

More than 500 tornadoes have been spotted in the U.S. since April, according to preliminary reports from the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center .

State of play: The 2024 tornado season is charting a path to become among the most prolific of recent years, per the NWS. It's still behind 2019, which recorded more than 800 in April and all of May.

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Yes, but : Both years are far behind the 2011 record of nearly 1,200 recorded tornadoes during the same time period.

Zoom in: Iowa has been hit particularly hard this year with a record 41 tornadoes in April, KCRG reports .

• Of those, multiple have touched down in the metro , damaging at least 18 homes and a cemetery in Pleasant Hill.

The intrigue: Some scientists believe climate change may be pushing "tornado alley" eastward, away from the Midwest.

• But others say tornadoes are a relatively small-scale weather phenomena, making precise climate assessments difficult, Axios' Rebecca Falconer and Andrew Freedman report.