This project delves into the geographical patterns of tornado occurrences in the United States. By analyzing a comprehensive dataset on tornadoes since 1950, the project aims to debunk common misconceptions and shed light on the spatial distribution of tornado-related phenomena. The investigation covers various aspects, including human impact, crop damage, and the presence of tornado hotspots.

Human vs. Crop Impact

The initial section of the project utilizes faceted scatter plot maps to explore the top ten and bottom ten tornadoes concerning injuries, fatalities, and crop damage. The visualizations provide insights into the correlation between human impact and crop damage, revealing distinct patterns in different regions of the United States.

The first map in this analysis focuses on tornadoes with the highest fatalities and injuries. The faceted 2-part map breaks down the data into top ten tornadoes based on human impact and crop damage. Each facet of the map emphasizes different aspects, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of where tornadoes with significant impacts tend to occur. The size of plotted points scales with tornado magnitude, offering a visual representation of the severity of each event.

The maps reveal intriguing insights, showcasing the geographical nuances of tornado occurrences. These maps display variations, indicating that high crop damage and human impact are not always closely linked since crop loss occurs in rural areas and human impact is larger in towns and cities.

This is a 2 part, faceted scatter plot map of the top ten tornadoes in terms of crop damage and in the the top ten tornadoes in terms of injuries and fatalities in the United States since 1950. Longitude is on the x axis and latitude is on the y axis. The longitude ranges from about -125 to -25 and the latitude ranges from about 0 to 50. This map has the size of the plotted points scaled to their magnitude from 4 to 5 on the fujita scale. We can see that the top maps for crop damage and injuries/fatalities are diffrent and are focused around diffrent parts of the map, showing high crop damage and injuries/fatalities have little correlation

https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/data/1950-2022_all_tornadoes.csv

Tornado Hotspots

To gain a comprehensive view of tornado occurrence in the United States, let’s shift our focus to understand the broader picture, considering the entire country. While many have heard of ‘tornado alley,’ pinpointing its exact location and significance might not be clear. To address this, let’s examine all the tornadoes in the U.S. since 1950 that attained the maximum intensity rating of F5 or EF5. This rating isn’t wind-based, as commonly misconstrued; instead, it’s based on the damage caused. For a tornado to receive an F5 or EF5 rating, it must severely damage well-built structures, essentially sweeping them off their foundations. These occurrences are exceptionally rare, hence the limited number of tornadoes receiving this rating. Mapping these events makes identifying tornado alley relatively straightforward—a distinct region where these extreme tornadoes predominantly occur.

This is a map of all the F5 and EF5 rated tornadoes in the United States since 1950. Longitude is on the x axis and latitude is on the y axis. The longitude ranges from -122 to -68 and the latitude ranges from 20 to 50 in order to fit the country and the legend in the map well. This map is color coded in order to show the tornado hotspots of the United States.

While understanding tornado alley through this lens is insightful, this map shows that there are other lesser-known tornado hotspots across the U.S. Apart from the vast expanse within tornado alley that covers much of the Great Plains, there are regions to the east: Dixie Alley and Hoosier Alley. Dixie Alley encompasses a significant portion of the Southeast U.S., while Hoosier Alley seems centered around the Ohio River Valley, extending northward to central Michigan.

Examining Hotspots by State

This trend of frequent tornado occurrences east of tornado alley becomes more evident when examining the count of strong tornadoes by state. A strong tornado, classified as F3/EF3 or higher, marks where the devastation begins. The map displays the count of strong tornadoes in each state, along with their average intensity, indicating occurrences of more violent tornadoes rated F4/EF4 and F5/EF5. Each state that has encountered F3/EF3 or higher-rated tornadoes is marked with a point, so if there is not a point there, that state has not even received one since 1950.

This is a map of the number of strong (F3/EF3 +) tornadoes the United States since 1950. Longitude is on the x axis and latitude is on the y axis. The longitude ranges from -125 to -65 and the latitude ranges from 25 to 50 in order to fit the country in the map well. This map is color coded based on average strong tornado intensity and the size of the points indicate the number of strong tornadoes in the state in order to show the states with the most and strongest tornadoes

This map echoes the earlier trend of F5/EF5 tornado occurrences, indicating a concentration of tornadoes east of the Great Plains, stretching toward the Appalachian Mountain Range. Notably, these tornadoes match the intensity of those in the Great Plains, as indicated by the darker shading of the points in the Hoosier and Dixie Alley regions. These hotspots outside tornado alley also exhibit a high number of strong tornadoes. For instance, Alabama and Mississippi report a similar count of strong tornadoes as Oklahoma and Kansas, each with figures reaching the three hundreds. This challenges the common belief that states like Oklahoma and Kansas experience the highest frequency of tornadoes. Additionally, Texas stands out due to its vast geographical area, experiencing over four hundred strong tornadoes.

In essence, we dispel a few myths about tornado occurrences. Contrary to some beliefs, tornadoes do not avoid cities but rather hit them less frequently due to the predominantly rural landscape across most of the U.S., especially within hotspot regions. Furthermore, we highlight the significance of other tornado hotspots outside tornado alley, particularly in the eastern U.S., showcasing their comparable importance in terms of the sheer number of strong tornadoes.