Ticker for February 10, 2004

                
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February 10, 2004  February 10, 2004  February 10, 2004  February 10, 2004



Some Interesting Oklahoma Tornado Stats

OCS's Climate Information Group is feverishly working on an
Electronic Atlas of Oklahoma Climate (coming soon to a CD-ROM drive
near you!).  CIG student staffer Bob Fritchie has been doing much
of the legwork in compiling statistics for this e-Atlas.  This
afternoon, Bob sent two very interesting graphics to the Ticker HQ.

The following two histograms show the number of Oklahoma tornadoes
in each May and October (respectively) since 1950, which is commonly
recognized as the beginning of the modern tornado record:




The May graphic shows a fairly evident 22-year cycle that seemed
to peak in 1960 and 1982.  Incidentally, May of 1938 (22 years prior
to 1960) was also a very big tornado month, as far as significant
(F2 or greater) tornadoes are concerned.  The Ticker Staff does seem
to recall something about a 22-year geomagnetic cycle on our planet,
which is very interesting, but probably unrelated.  Anyway, we'll
leave it as an excercise for the reader to determine which May falls
22 years after 1982 (cue spooky music here).

The October graphic shows a marked increase in tornadoes over the
last decade or so.  This feature could be an artifact of increased
surveillance (more radars, people and chasers are out there in the
paths of these storms).  But the 1990s signal also includes several
significant October outbreaks that were unprecedented in the modern
tornado record.

This October migration from the statistical norm accompanies a
substantial increase in autumn precipitation over the same period.
In short, Oklahoma's autumns in the 90s were really different than
those of the rest of the century.