Unraveling Tornado Trends

INFO 526 - Fall 2023 - Project 1

Team Aes-Thetics-Squad: Priyarsha Vallabhaneni, Sai Madhuri Kandula, Jothish Kumar Polaki, Ansh Kumar Dev

Tornado Dataset Analysis

Understanding Tornado Data: Analysis Questions

  • Are there any patterns in the magnitude of tornadoes based on location or time of year?

  • What are the trends in the frequency of tornado-related fatalities over the years for different states in the USA?

Dataset Description

  • Data sourced from NOAA’s National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.

  • Key variables include tornado number, year, month, state, magnitude, injuries, fatalities, property loss, length, width, and states affected.

  • Loaded using tidytuesdayR package or manually read from a CSV file.

Key Dataset Characteristics

  1. Temporal and Geographical Coverage: Spans 1950-2022, covers all U.S. states including Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

  2. Magnitude and Variations: Includes tornado magnitude (F scale, later EF), some values estimated, for analyzing patterns by location and time.

  3. Fatalities and Injuries: Provides data on tornado-related fatalities and injuries for studying trends over the years and across states.

  4. Geospatial Details: Offers geospatial info like coordinates, length, and width for exploring tornado geography.

Question 1: Are there any patterns in the magnitude of tornadoes based on location or time of year?

Tornado occurences over years

The plot is a line graph that illustrates how the number of tornadoes has changed over time from 1950 to 2022.

Tornado magnitude distributions over 12 decades

The bar plot illustrates the distribution of tornado magnitudes over 12-year intervals, revealing trends in the prevalence of different magnitude categories.

Tornado contour map

Conclusion

  1. This presentation explores tornado trends using NOAA’s Tornado Dataset, addressing questions on tornado magnitude patterns and fatality trends in different states.

  2. Analysis reveals that tornado magnitudes vary over time and are distributed differently across 12-year intervals, providing insights into changing tornado patterns.

  3. The study also uncovers states with notable tornado-related fatalities in 1953 and 2011, shedding light on geographical vulnerability to tornadoes.’