May is usually thought of as the third and final month of Alabama’s spring severe weather season.

May 2025 definitely lived up to that billing.

Not just because of tornadoes — there were certainly many of those. But also because of the sheer number of days with severe weather in the forecast for the state.

A look back at severe weather outlooks from the Storm Prediction Center shows that there were only four days in May that did not have severe weather in the forecast for at least part of the state at some point in the day.

Above is the May calendar for just north Alabama, which had more than its fair share of storms and tornadoes last month. For north Alabama there was severe weather in the forecast for 18 of the 31 days in May.

For central Alabama there were only 10 days without severe storms in the forecast. For south Alabama it was nine days.

May also had more tornadoes than any month so far this year.

There were 20 confirmed tornadoes across the state in May. (March had 18, February had 12, April had 10 and January had 2).

Most of those 20 May tornadoes were on May 20, when a wave of severe storms rolled across the state and hit north Alabama particularly hard. There was a Level 3 out of 5 (enhanced) risk for severe weather for part of the state that day.

There were 17 confirmed tornadoes May 20-21, and 14 of those were in the 11 counties covered by the National Weather Service in Huntsville.

The rain also added up. Tuscaloosa had its rainiest May on record and got nearly 15 inches of rain in May. Several other larger cities, including Birmingham and Huntsville, were in the top 10 on record for rain in May.

According to the weather service a large part of the state got 10-15 inches of rain, with some isolated 15- to 20-inch amounts.

The good news is that severe weather is not in the forecast for at least the next week, according to forecasts from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center.

Alabama has entered meteorological summer, and summer here usually means frequent days with scattered afternoon and evening storms.

Sometimes those storms can hit severe limits, but “organized” severe weather is not as common over the summer unless a tropical system is involved.

Here’s a look at tornadoes by month in Alabama. Those numbers drop considerably over the summer months (June, July and August) and start to climb again during the so-called “secondary severe weather season” that starts in November.

The Storm Prediction Center is not expecting severe weather in Alabama for at least the next seven days.

There will be chances for rain and storms, but multiple severe storms are not expected.