Patterns in U.S. tornado vulnerability over the last decade

With broadcast meteorologists being increasingly tasked with the important role of station scientist and all-around environmental science communicator, it is more important than ever to have a well-rounded understanding of national-scale hazardous weather vulnerability. This particular study will aim to provide the station meteorologist with information about those areas of the nation under the greatest threat for significant tornadoes based on a relatively short-period climatological analysis.

The official National Weather Service (NWS) tornado database will be analyzed with respect to tornado fatalities, injuries, and resulting tornado-inflicted property damage to summarize those areas of the country that have been most severely impacted by tornado events since 1999. Damage estimates, deaths and injuries along the paths of the more significant tornado events will be plotted to depict regional tornado vulnerability during this period. This information will be overlaid and cross-referenced with U.S. census data to better understand what populations have borne the brunt of the most severe tornadoes. A few of the more noteworthy tornado events (chosen based on number of fatalities and magnitude of estimated property loss) will be highlighted from the decadal analysis and further investigated with respect to climatological and meteorological factors. Are there similarities among these tornado events over the relatively short time-span of one decade? Such information, if revealed, could be used to improve predictability and forecast confidence in advance of future high impact tornado events.