BTW, they have better tracking methods today than they have ever had. Yes they are counting more tornadoes of various sizes, but then they have a massive number of people out there tracking these days too.
New resources, more people tracking, the ability to see particulate matter in the air, not as many develop and slip under the attention of the weather service these days.
Who knows what we would have seen in past decades, if we had these new tools and this number of chasers.
All of that still leaves my dumb question. Why don’t southern states homes have basements?