A "tornado day" means a tornado occurred somewhere in the U.S. on a particular day.  These data do NOT reflect the total number of tornadoes that occurred but instead they indicate how many days during each year one or more tornadoes occurred in the U.S.

As with tornado totals, the data prior to 1953 are not reliable due to a lack of any official data collection procedures.

The 1953-1999 (47-year) average was 174 tornado days per year.
The last 30 years average (1970-1999) was 182 tornado days per year.
Every year since 1990 has been above the 47-year average.
Every year since 1992 has been above the recent 30-year average.

Data from Dr. Joseph T. Schaefer, Director, Storm Prediction Center 
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UNL
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
High Plains Regional Climate Center
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