NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Middle Tennessee saw just one tornado in 2022, coming off a record-high count for tornadoes in 2021.

Typically, Middle Tennessee experiences around nine tornadoes each year. However, last year the area saw 46 twisters, which is a record high.

While the area had a low tornado count in 2022, it was a different story in southern parts of the country.

“Across Mississippi and Alabama and Louisiana, they had record numbers of tornadoes this year just to our south, but luckily we were just far enough north that the deepest gulf moisture, the atmospheric instability and the strongest wind shear, all the ingredients we look for tornadoes just didn’t quite come this far north,” said Sam Shamburger, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Nashville.

What makes 2022’s low tornado count even more unusual is that during a La Nina year, which is the climate pattern we’re experiencing now, the weather is supposed to be more severe.

The atmosphere replaced the lack of tornadoes with more hail storms and straight-line windstorms this year, including one in October that killed a woman in Williamson County after a tree fell on her car.

“If you don’t get one type of weather, the atmosphere likes to make up for it with other types of weather,” Shamburger said.

While 2023 will also be a La Nina year, Shamburger told News 2 it’s difficult to predict what will happen weather-wise. “Based on history, we’d expect to see a little more activity as far as tornadoes and severe weather is concerned, but the atmosphere does what it wants, and like we saw this year, one tornado, so maybe we’ll luck out again and next year will be very quiet as well.”

This year’s one confirmed tornado is the lowest count in Middle Tennessee since 1989. Last year’s 46 tornadoes total was the highest count in Middle Tennessee history.