Ticker for September 10, 2002

                
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September 10, 2002 September 10, 2002 September 10, 2002 September 10, 2002


Tornado Numbers Updated

Thanks to a little archival help (okay, a lot) from our friend Doug
Speheger at the Norman Weather Service office, we have a couple
tornado maps today.  The data are updated through 2000, to coincide
with other climatological information currently being implemented
by OCS.

The first is a simple tornado count since 1950:


As you can see, Kay County is still the "winner", but Caddo County
made up a lot of ground in recent years.  Another feature you may
notice is a general pattern of slightly larger numbers in a wide
belt across central Oklahoma.

Another feature: Generally (but by no means exclusively), the counts
are relatively higher for larger counties, and for more populous
counties.  Both of these are understandable: larger counties provide
a bigger target than their smaller neighbors for tornado-producing
storms, and more populous counties provide more eyeballs to see those
tornadoes.

The population effect is a little more dramatic when we filter out
the areal signal.  The following map depicts the frequency of
tornadoes per square mile for each county:


Again, it should be stressed that there's much more to this signal
than population alone!

One interesting viewpoint would be to look at the last 20 years or so.
Since remotely-deployed storm spotters and chasers became prolific,
one would think that any population effect would be diminished.

Lastly, for a much more thorough treatment of tornado and severe
weather climatology, check for journal articles and conference papers
out of NSSL with "Brooks" or "Doswell" (or, if you're lucky, both!)
on them.