AOTW: January Tornadoes

Posted by on 15 Jan 2011 | 2 comments

I apologize that this week’s answer is a day late. I was traveling yesterday and unable to access the Internet. But without further adieu, here is this week’s answer.

January Tornadoes By Year and Rating
  1. Since 1950, how many (official) tornadoes have occurred in January?
    • There have been 1193 tornadoes during the month of January in the 60 years spanning 1950 to 2009. This equates to an average of 19.88 tornadoes per year in January. Broken down by rating:

      • F/EF-Unknown: 30
      • F/EF-0: 391
      • F/EF-1: 443
      • F/EF-2: 251
      • F/EF-3: 67
      • F/EF-4: 11
      • F/EF-5: 0

As you can see, 1999 was a very active year in terms of January tornadoes. There were several tornado outbreaks that January, including the largest January outbreak on record, which affected parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

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  • Jay Bell

    Thanks for posting that Patrick! In light of the Cincinnati, AR tornado recently (I know it was in December)…I was curious if there is a similar graph showing fatalities in the winter months vs. fatalities in the spring/summer months. It seems, living in Arkansas, we suffer the highest fatality count in the winter, but I have not been able to find a graph with proper representation. Of course, it could just be my perspective.

  • http://www.patricktmarsh.com pmarshwx

    Hi, Jay.

    I don’t have a figure like the one you describe already made, but it wouldn’t be that hard to make. I think I’ll use your idea as the basis for next week’s question and then provide the answers and maps on Friday. Thanks for the idea!

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