BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) – Spring temperatures that roller-coastered from freezing to summerlike heat have spawned a third fewer tornadoes than usual in Illinois, just a year after the state spun up a new record for twisters.

Weather officials said Wednesday that the dramatic dip from last year’s fury is nothing new for Illinois, which is nearly as well known for unpredictable weather as corn fields and the Chicago skyline.

“We just kind of seesaw back and forth between very quiet years and very stormy years. Sometimes it comes down to one or two bad days with a lot of tornadoes that can make all the difference,” said Jim Angel, state climatologist with the Illinois State Water Survey.

About a dozen tornadoes have been reported so far this year, compared with 19 that typically touch down through May, said Chris Miller, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lincoln.

A year ago, Illinois logged about 90 funnel clouds heading into June on the way to a record 124, Miller said. The state averages about 40 tornadoes annually.

Curt Hawk, director of the McLean County Emergency Management Agency, said his central Illinois tornado spotters have only been out four times so far this year, compared to almost weekly last spring.

“It looks like we’ve made it through the biggest period for storms, but here in Illinois we can have tornadoes every month, so we never take for granted that we’re out of the woods,” Hawk said

Despite the decline, Illinois won’t flirt with a record low unless tornadoes fizzle out for the rest of the year, matching the 12 twisters that touched down in 1979, Miller said.

Miller said erratic weather patterns that sandwiched a cold April between warmer-than-usual temperatures in March and May have pushed stormy weather south into Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, where a May 4 tornado destroyed a small town and killed at least a dozen people.

Storms that do cross into Illinois have generally weakened due to a lack of humid air and moist ground to help stoke them, Miller said.

Angel said this year’s tornado slowdown is puzzling because March was warm and wet – usually the perfect recipe for storms – as Illinois kicked off a four-month stretch that historically nets its biggest flurry of tornadoes.

March temperatures averaged more than 6 degrees above normal, making it the sixth warmest on record, and was slightly wetter than usual with nearly 3.5 inches of rain statewide, Angel said.

“It just wasn’t very conducive to severe weather for some reason, not that I’m complaining,” Angel said.

A wet April followed with temperatures averaging nearly 3 degrees below normal, chasing away storms, but bringing a stretch of freezing nights that damaged fruit and winter wheat crops across the state, Angel said. Temperatures rose again in May, but the skies dried up, dropping about 1.5 inches less than the monthly average of about 4 inches of rain through Tuesday.

Miller said forecasts through August show no trend for above- or below-normal temperatures and rainfall, which generally brings slightly cooler and wetter weather.

“That type of weather pattern wouldn’t bode real well for a very active severe pattern as far as tornadoes are concerned, but what we can see is high winds, straight-line winds that are more typical in the summer,” Miller said.

Officials say this year’s tornadoes largely have touched down in open fields, damaging trees and a few outbuildings but causing no injuries or major structural damage.

Country Insurance and Financial Services processed about 6,500 storm-related claims totaling $11.5 million in Illinois through April, compared with more than 16,700 totaling $46.7 million a year ago, said spokeswoman Chris Anderson. The Bloomington-based insurer has 1.1 million home and auto policyholders in Illinois.