There is never a "too early of a time for a severe weather thread in the U.S". I was recently asked by a fellow weather enthusiast from northern California when we had severe here. I responded with January 1st to December 31st. I told him that here in Arkansas there is always a chance for severe weather. He was surprised by this statement. I gave him several dates of severe weather events here in AR as a reference. He was most surprised with me telling him of a tornado on December 31st, 2010 in northwest AR. This tornado was rated and EF-3 and caused 3 fatalities. What makes this unique is that it occurred just after 6:00 am, which isn't usually considered a time for such a strong tornado.
One of the most frightening experiences for me personally happened on Saturday, Feb. 22, 1975. It had been storming constantly all day. Temps were in the 70's-80's. Our local met was on the air with weather warnings from about noon on showing the WSR-57 radar from the NWS on the black and white TV we had. At around 4:15pm, it suddenly quit raining, quit thundering, everything. My father was on the phone when it suddenly cut out, and we lost power. It was then we looked out the living room window to see shingles flying off of all of the neighbors' roof and ours. Mom grabs myself and my brother and we bound down the stairs to the basement, while my father opens the front door to watch what's coming. I distinctly remember the pressure change in my ears and hearing the "waterfall" sound of a tornado. It was over in about 1 minute. We walked outside to inspect the damage. We had lost the entire south side of our roof and some other shingles off of the west side, but were otherwise unscathed. Several neighbors lost their steel storage sheds. Those were deposited in a backyard about a block away wrapped around a power pole.
We found out later that a house about a mile north of us was destroyed by this tornado. The only thing left standing was an island that was in the kitchen, and the owner had taken shelter in those cabinets!!!! She was uninjured. This tornado was rated an F3.
Ironically the next day, Sunday, snow fell while my father and several neighbors helped re-roof our house and others homes that were damaged.
John