Patrick T. Marsh

AOTW: More on January Tornadoes

· Science

This post is from January 2011. It is part of the archive of my original blog, so its data, links, and conclusions may be out of date.

The answers to this week’s “Question of the Week” might surprise some of you. But first, here are the graphs that answer these questions

Here is a choropleth map of January tornadoes by state:

January Tornado Numbers (By State)

Here is a bar graph showing January tornado counts by state, ordered from most to least:

January Tornado Numbers (By State)

Keeping the states in descending order of most January tornadoes to fewest tornadoes, here is a bar graph depicting the number of injures by state:

January Tornado Injuries (By State)

And, once again, keeping the states in descending order of most January tornadoes to fewest tornadoes, here is a bar graph depicting the number of fatalities by state:

January Tornado Fatalities (By State)

And even though this plot is a bit crowded, here is a bar chart that combines the three previous charts into one:

January Tornado Statistics (By State)

Could you figure out the answers? Well, if not, here they are:

  • Which state(s) had the most January tornadoes? Florida (151)

  • Which state(s) had the most January tornado injuries? Mississippi (580)

  • Which state(s) had the most January tornado fatalities? Mississippi (42)

  • Which state(s) had the most injuries per tornado? Deleware (7 per tornado)

  • Which state(s) had the most fatalities per tornado? Oklahoma (0.62 per tornado)

And here are the raw numbers,

State: Tornadoes, Injuries, Fatalities, IPT*, FPT**

  • AL: 89, 294, 19, 3.30, 0.21
  • AR: 117, 218, 13, 1.86, 0.11
  • AZ: 6, 0, 0, 0.00, 0.00
  • CA: 39, 3, 0, 0.07, 0.00
  • DE: 1, 7, 0, 7.00, 0.00
  • FL: 151, 259, 5, 1.71, 0.03
  • GA: 91, 130, 5, 1.42, 0.05
  • HI: 6, 4, 0, 0.66, 0.00
  • IA: 13, 11, 1, 0.84, 0.07
  • IL: 28, 140, 1, 5.00, 0.03
  • IN: 17, 7, 3, 0.41, 0.17
  • KS: 3, 0, 0, 0.00, 0.00
  • KY: 24, 39, 4, 1.62, 0.16
  • LA: 123, 142, 10, 1.15, 0.08
  • MD: 3, 0, 0, 0.00, 0.00
  • MI: 1, 0, 0, 0.00, 0.00
  • MO: 77, 276, 8, 3.58, 0.10
  • MS: 127, 580, 42, 4.56, 0.33
  • NC: 24, 50, 1, 2.08, 0.04
  • NE: 6, 0, 0, 0.00, 0.00
  • NV: 1, 0, 0, 0.00, 0.00
  • OH: 6, 3, 0, 0.50, 0.00
  • OK: 16, 32, 10, 2.00, 0.62
  • OR: 1, 0, 0, 0.00, 0.00
  • PA: 6, 18, 0, 3.00, 0.00
  • SC: 26, 44, 0, 1.69, 0.00
  • TN: 48, 210, 14, 4.37, 0.29
  • TX: 139, 73, 2, 0.52, 0.01
  • UT: 1, 0, 0, 0.00, 0.00
  • VA: 13, 14, 1, 1.07, 0.07
  • WA: 3, 0, 0, 0.00, 0.00
  • WI: 3, 5, 0, 1.66, 0.00
  • WV: 2, 0, 0, 0.00, 0.00

*IPT = Injuries Per Tornado

**FPT = Fatalities Per Tornado

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