Oklahoma City: Amazing Tornado Facts!!

[Scott A. Kampas]

If I had my pick of any world city, I'd pick OKC. ;-)

 

[Dave Ewoldt]

No doubt the size has everything to do with it. As a crow flies... it is almost 45 statute miles from the northwest corner to the southeast corner of the city. There are likely many 45 mile wide locations in "tornado alley" (if there is an "alley") that have had 116 tornadoes in the past 116 years. Who knows? It may be more impressive that an area that big has only been hit an average of one time a year.

 

[Jeremy Lemanski]

Other major tornado events have struck cities away from downtown or in the metro area including Kansas City, Chicago, Worcester, Birmingham, Dallas, Wichita Falls, and St. Louis.

Well, you can add Flint michigan 1953, Metro Detroit 1956,1964,and 1976, Kalamazoo Michigan 1980, Grand Rapids 1956 and 1965 to the list of major tornado events to hit large cities or metro areas.

I think just about any large metro area has been hit by a tornado from the rockies east to about a Mobile AL. to Erie PA line.

 

[Bill Tabor]

OKC is huge for its population (3rd largest in the country in geographical area); and the distinction needs to be clear whether it is city limits or metropolitan area under consideration. Only if the area within the city limits of Dallas and Ft. Worth are combined is there a larger city in areal coverage. Also, much of the area within the OKC city limits is not yet built, the urbanized area is 244 mi². Here is a sampling of areas of several cities:

Dallas: 385.0 mi² + Ft. Worth: 298.9 mi² = Total: 683.9 mi²
Oklahoma City: 621.2 mi²

Wow! I didn't know it was so big. I just don't see how. I drive through it all the time and it doesn't seem that large or take near as long to drive though as I recall as DFW area. Maybe most of it is not populated as someone else mentioned. I usually just come up through I35 from Norman and head off often to the ne on (what is it?) I40. Just doesn't seem to take that long.

Also consider the study ranking OKC so high doesn't even include the area from Norman.

I'll have to take a look at what areas the study does include. Regardless I still don't think 'size matters' :lol: in this case. Sure it has something to do with it, but seems that still isn't a huge amount of area. It just wouldn't have anywhere near that many tornadoes strikes if it wasn't also a hotbed or bullseye for tornadic activity. This can even be seen by looking at climatological maps historically greatest tornado activity.

Here's one from 1921 to 1995 showing F2's or greater. I couldn't find one for all tornadoes during this range of time. Note the large bullseye of the OKC area - nothing to do with land mass.

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/hazard/tanim8094/...gtanim2195.html

One thing that is really interesting is that the bullseye for the signifcant torns peaks toward the end of April - say beginning April 26 and then begins going away after May 6th. So seems that is the best time to find a significant tornado, or in other words if you have a severe outbreak around the OKC area during this period of time I would think that might indicate increased probability of F2 and greater torns. Also consider the May 3rd '99 outbreak fits the climatology of this violent peak.

Another note: I see on the F4 and greater loop that AL has a secondary bullseye for torns during March.

 

[Bill Tabor]

With all these stats on OKC tornadoes it makes me wonder what pattern was in place during the peaks and droughts for tornadoes. It would be interesting for instance to compare this to La Nina and El Nino events, or any other features that would work to compare.

I realize that would probably only include the latter years of tornadoes, but maybe the last 30 or 5 years could be studied.

Another thought...is there a pattern similar to this year and how does that bode for OKC?

 

[samuel stone]

Bill, this is complete and utter speculation on my part, but is it possible that increased spotter activity (in the early years of spotting) around the Norman area led to an increase in tornado reports in the early years? This is more of a question(that btw I have been wondering about for quite some time) than a statement, so could someone please tell if this Idea is completely BOGUS! or am I possibly on to somthing?

 

[Paul Knightley]

Hi,

I was reading this thread the other day, and decided to check up on how big the Greater London (UK) area is, compared with OKC, in an attempt to compare tornado stats, etc (just for interest!).

Greater London occupies approx 605 sq miles, and so I made the assumption, for ease of calculation, that both cities were 605 sq. miles.

Now, OKC has had 116 tornadoes since 1890, and Greater London has had about 40 tornadoes (although this is not an exact figure!).

Thus, OKC has had 0.19 tornadoes/sq. mile, and London, 0.06 tornadoes/sq. mile.

As far as a threat to people goes:

OKC's population is (2000 census) 506132, or 836.5 people/sq. mile.

Greater London's population is about 7,172,036, or 11,854.6 people/sq. mile (!).

Thus, OKC has 0.0002 tornadoes/person, and Gtr London 0.000005 tornadoes/person.

Thus, it's pretty obvious (and of course I knew this from the start) that OKC is much more dangerous a place to be for tornadoes than London, at least as far as probabilities are concerned...OKC is also much more likely to see a strong-violent class tornado than London.

However, OKC is also a well warned, fairly well prepared city for tornadoes, and London is not. This means that if London gets hit by a strong-violent class tornado in the future (and I'm sure it will at some point - a T7 tornado affected west London in 1954), the human impact could be very high.


Anyway - thought this may interest a few people!

cheers,

Paul.

 

[Chris Sokol]

Originally posted by Bill Tabor


Also consider the study ranking OKC so high doesn't even include the area from Norman.

But since Norman never gets hit by tornadoes, there is no reason to count it. :lol:

Wasn't September 5th, 1992 the last tornado actually to hit Norman?

 

[Rob Satkus]

Originally posted by Chris Sokol


Wasn't September 5th, 1992 the last tornado actually to hit Norman?

I think that was actually a downburst/wind event....near 100mph winds measured at the NWS late on the 5th/early am 6th. A couple of days earlier, on the 2nd, an F2 tornado hit very close to Purcell, south of Norman. On March 13, 1990 a tornado hit Noble, just south of Norman and eventually crossed Hwy 9...not sure if that was within Norman city limits though. If so, it was a rural area at the time (still pretty much is). Beyond that, I think in the early 80's there was an F0 reported in the city of Norman, but I don't remember the exact date or location.

Rob

 

[Gabe Garfield]

11/18/1983 at 22:50 CST, 0.2 mile path length, 15 yds wide, F1, S Sections of Norman.

According to Storm Data, this is the last official touchdown within Norman city limits.

Source: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/tornadodata/co...ounty=Cleveland

Gabe