Synopsis

I’ll write a more fluffy synopsis later. This may contain many typos and choppy/repetitive sentences. Just some context for now, this project is just a county-based climatology for Oklahoma tornadoes from 1993-2023.

Here, I looked at things such as the most common tornado touchdown time, averages per month, as well as the numbers in ENSO seasons.

I made this for a project assignment in a GIS class at OU. I really just used NWS Norman’s tornado database, NOAA’s ENSO ONI and a few… sanity-draining Python/Arcpy scripts.


General Statistics

The Overall Totals

Oklahoma Tornado Totals Oklahoma Casualty-Causing Tornado Totals

These maps show how many tornadoes total occurred per county, as well as how many of those tornadoes caused injuries and/or deaths. One thing I found interesting is that you could pick out the larger cities, such as Oklahoma City and Tulsa. This is because they are more densely populated, thus higher chances of a tornado impacting an occupied building.

Tornado Ratings

Oklahoma Most Common Tornado Rating Oklahoma Strongest Tornado Rating

These maps show the most common tornado rating (F and EF scale combined) seen per county and the strongest tornado rating seen per county.

Temporal Totals

Oklahoma Counties Most Active Tornado Year Oklahoma Most Common Tornado Touchdown Time

These maps show the year with the most tornadoes per county. Also, the most common time of day for tornado touchdowns.

The Yearly Totals

Oklahoma Counties Tornado Count By Year

This animated map shows the total number of tornadoes per county, per year. You can pick out years that had infamous outbreaks, such as 2011 and 1999.


ENSO Statistics

It is well-known in the weather community that the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO for short) has an influence on the large-scale weather patterns that lead to tornadogenesis. Here, I explored some of the tornado-related statistics to see if any patterns could be deciphered.

Totals Per Season

Oklahoma Counties Tornado Totals 1993-2023 El Nino Oklahoma Counties Tornado Totals 1993-2023 Neutral Oklahoma Counties Tornado Totals 1993-2023 La Nina
Oklahoma Counties Sigtor Totals 1993-2023 El Nino Oklahoma Counties Sigtor Totals 1993-2023 Neutral Oklahoma Counties Sigtor Totals 1993-2023 La Nina

The first set of maps shows the total number of tornadoes that occurred during each type of ENSO season within the study period. The second set of maps shows the number of sigtors (Tornadoes rated F/EF-3+) that occurred during each season.

Seasonal Tornado Frequencies

Oklahoma Counties Most Frequent Tornado ENSO Season Oklahoma Counties Strongest Tornado ENSO Season

The first map shows which season a given county received the most number of tornadoes. The secomd map shows which season that the most sigtors in a given county occurred.

For the majority of the counties that received a mixed-season classification, the highest frequencies occurred in a Neutral-La Nina combination.

Maximums Per Season

[ Maps coming soon! ]

Here, I investigated which months saw the most tornadoes per ENSO season.


[ Maps coming soon! ]

Here, I investigated which months saw the most sigtors per ENSO season.

Conclusion Coming Soon!