Tornado Impact Data: Visualizations by Andrea S. Johnson

Measurements of Impact

Two Decades of damage statistics, 1996-2019

Tornado Impacts

The National Weather Service classifies the measurements of impact for a tornado event as three distinct results.

Tornado Impacts Data Visualization #1

Tornado Frequency

The National Weather Service aggregates measurements for each individual tornado event. A tornado event is defined by a touchdown and a path.

Tornado Frequency Data Visualization #2

Tornado Severity

The National Weather Service classifies the severity of a tornado using the Fujita Scale.

Tornado Severity Data Visualization #3

Tornado Geography

The National Weather Service also classifies tornado events to include location data.

Tornado Geography 1 Tornado Geography 2 Data Visualization #4

Questions to Answer:

  1. How do the "Measurements of impact" look year over year?
  2. Are the measurements of impact correlated with each other?
  3. Does frequency of tornado events have a direct relationship with the measurements of impact?
  4. Does an F5 event do more damage than a large number of F1 events?
  5. Which states experience the greatest frequency and severity of tornadoes?
  6. Where does Indiana rank for tornado events among the 50 states?