A simple, objective definition of a highdeath tornado is to take all killer tornadoes within a 5-yr window and find the 95th percentile of the death tolls associated with those tornadoes. Smoothing the 95th percentile value with a 3-point median filter, followed by an 11-point running mean, shows that it has dropped from 20–25 during the period of 1900–70 down to about 10–15 since 1975.