Wichita ? A record number of tornadoes touched down in Kansas and nationwide last year.

Remarkably, the national death toll ended up far below the annual average. In Kansas, no one was killed.

Until May rolled around, 2004 was most notable for how few tornadoes there had been.

The jet stream shifted to a path that created ideal conditions for the formation of the supercell thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes.

“It’s like someone almost flipped a switch there by mid-May,” Wichita weather researcher Jon Davies said.

An extraordinarily high number of tornadoes produced by hurricanes made 2004 a national record-setter, officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said. A whopping 420 tornadoes were reported in August and September, more than four times the average for those two months.

So many tornadoes touched down around the country that the old record for tornadoes fell long before the calendar ran out.

There were 1,555 tornadoes around the country through September, according to statistics compiled by the prediction center. That surpasses the previous record, set in 1998, by more than 130. Tornado reports for the final three months have yet to be confirmed.

In Kansas, 124 tornadoes were recorded, topping the mark of 116 set in 1991. The state also set a record for most tornadoes in a single month: 66 in May.

The higher numbers do not necessarily mean more tornadoes are occurring now than in years past — they simply mean the tornadoes that are forming are getting noticed.

“If we had had the radars, the spotters and the warning systems in the 1950s, there are a couple of years — like ’57 or ’55 — that it wouldn’t surprise me if they had more tornadoes than we have now,” said Mike Smith, founder and chief executive of WeatherData, a private forecasting service based in Wichita.

“But with the revolution in tornado science and detection that started in the early 1970s, it’s easier to set a record now.

“The good news is, it’s saving lives.”

Nationwide, 35 people were killed by tornadoes last year, less than two-thirds the annual average.

Improvements in technology allow meteorologists to spot rotation in thunderstorms and issue tornado warnings before a funnel even forms. Networks of trained storm spotters and an explosion in the number of “storm chasers” provide many witnesses to confirm if a funnel cloud has reached the ground.

“If it touches down for 10 seconds, it gets reported, whereas that never happened 50 years ago,” Smith said.

In recent years, more people than ever have kept their eyes on the sky whenever it appears turbulent weather is approaching. Besides professional storm chasers, people who just want to see a tornado in person can be found on the roads on stormy days.

So many people were out trying to see tornadoes in the Wichita area this spring, in fact, that some authorities expressed concern that emergency response vehicles would not be able to reach areas struck by the storms.

“The storm craze has exploded the past 10 years,” said David Imy, a forecaster for the Storm Prediction Center. “We’re definitely getting more reports than we used to.”

The irony, Smith said, is that advancements in broadcast technology and knowledge of how storms form and evolve make it more likely that people will get better views of tornadoes from their television sets than if they tried to chase a twister themselves.

“You’re far better off staying at home and watching the experts televise the tornadoes, than going out and trying to see it yourself,” he said.