If there is such a thing as "tornado season" in this part of the country, we're in the thick of it now. In Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, July is the month with the most reported tornadoes.

This isn't surprising because, on average, July is our hottest and muggiest month. That means July has the most thunderstorms - and to get a tornado, you need a nasty thunderstorm. Once we get into August and especially September, thunderstorms become less frequent, and so do tornadoes.

But there's no reason to hit the panic button in our region. For instance, in Delaware, if we add up the area directly affected by all the tornadoes that have hit in the last 50 years, we get a total of only 8 square miles. Convert that to a risk, and it means that any specific point in the state will be visited by a tornado only once about every 10,000 years.