There is another Hurricane heading for the Southeastern U.S., the states are preparing for it. "Nate" (Link) is this Hurricanes name if it's any relief he's supposed to be a "fast" moving storm. New Orlean's is preparing by ensuring all of their pumps are in top-notch shape, all of these states sure do get hammered on a regular basis. I was planning on writing this blog about the recovery in Florida, however when researching through the news outlets I had what I thought was a revelation, why haven't we heard anything about the Tornadoes that usually frequent the midsection of the United States. I was raised in an area that experiences Tornadoes, they are (I don't have to say it out loud), extremely dangerous storms.
I am wondering what happened to the Tornadoes this year? Either 1) I haven't been paying attention. 2) The storms have taken a back seat to the other horrendous events occurring this year, or 3) Something happened to cause a decrease in the number of the storms.
What has happened? My attention has been primarily on the other events, have you noticed any reports of Tornadoes or is it just me? It's not unusual to focus on the "most" devastating events, that may be human nature, sometimes we get overwhelmed with information, (well I do, speaking only for myself.) I have a natural filter causing me to categorize events in a priority type of sequence, again speaking for myself. I have compared this year 2017 to the last year 2016, I'm not pretending it sets a weather trend or anything of the sort, it merely tells us the number experienced in comparison to each other, (the years). (Link to NOAA)
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| A huge tornado, well developed and on the move. |
I was not surprised by the #2 state's number of occurrences, Kansas was struck by 1207 Tornadoes in 2016, 419 fewer than Texas. It's not a competition, it brings up more questions to me, most likely due to my limited knowledge of weather and all that is involved in its creation. Kansas in 2017 experienced 1107, 100 fewer than occurred in 2016, interesting.
North Carolina had the third most Tornadoes in 2016, should we be surprised? I'm not sure, however, I certainly am, I assumed the most occurrences are in the Midwest, rare in mountainous regions. during 2016 North Carolina had 871, still a large number. During the year of 2017 the state suffered through 656, 215 less, I will have to do extensive research to find out what made the difference.
Virginia had 854 of the cyclones in 2016, I must admit this surprises me, because of my assumption of occurrences being overwhelmingly in the Midwest. In 2017 618 have occurred up until October 6 of this year. 236 fewer storms in Virginia in 2017, I am really getting curious now. So whats the #5 state?
This state is not a surprise, Oklahoma takes the brunt of Tornadoes it seems every year, they experienced 814 storms of this type. Reports of Tornadoes in Oklahoma occupy the front page of many newspapers each year during the "season", with devastating results. In the year of 2017, there were 889 occurrences of Tornadoes, 75 more up until October 6 of this year. I don't see a two-year trend here.
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| My favorite state, independent, reliable people however to me it's also the center of Tornadoes in the United States. |
I will continue on to list first the 5 month's having the most Tornadoes in both years:
It's no surprise that the summer month's top the list, in 2016/2017 August-1924/, July-5642/3403, June-3858/3796, May 3078/4084, and April 1699/2568 (I placed the year's side by side for easier comparison, 2016 on the left, 2017 on the right.) Interestingly May and April of 2017 experienced an increase while June, July, and August decreased, in fact, August is not listed on the top ten list for the year 2017, explaining the absence of a number of occurrences. Does it have to do with the amount of rain we experienced during the 2016-2017 winter? It's open for investigation for sure.
The most "Active" days for each year:
2016: June 17, 2016, April 26, 2016, July 6, 2016, July 8, 2016, July 13, 2016
2017: March 6, 2017, May 27, 2017, Feb. 28, 2017, March 1, 2017 and June 18, 2017.
The only day to repeat is July 13 of both years, however, it is #6 on the 2017 most active days list. It leads me to speculate the past does not predict the future by the day or the month. May it have to do with the difference in temperature and rainfall during the winter of 2015-2016?
There is more of a pattern developing after the first 5 days, but not enough of one to write about or even recognize as a trend. In other words, 1) I just haven't been paying attention to the weather reports on Tornadoes. I watched the Weather Channel for Hurricane coverage only, I will wake up and pay closer attention. 2) Yes, the Hurricanes and Earthquakes and Volcano's and floods and Murders have taken a lot of news items room on air and in print, after all, with everything that is taking place something has to be neglected, I suppose, otherwise, the newspapers would be like the Websters Dictionary every morning. 3) No, the occurrences of Tornadoes have not lessened, they have more or less remained the same, so as the old saying goes "Move along folks, there's nothing to see here."
Thank you all for reading and sharing this blog, if nothing else my little bit of research exposed that one thing has remained relatively stable, unfortunately, it is the regularity of the occurrence of the dreaded Tornado.
jacquesandkate emergencykitsplus.com
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