SPC Tornado Outbreak Browser

[V. Gensini]

Wanted to bring this amazing new tool from the SPC to your attention. This is essentially the largest collection of information about tornado outbreaks in a single location. What a great way to cure that SDS!

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/outbreaks/

Huge kudos to Chris Broyles (SPC) and many others who helped make this project a reality. I was able to help contribute by generating all environmental maps prior to '79 using NNRP and 20CR data.

 

[chrisbray]

It's interesting, but I am having some trouble figuring out how to work the page in some areas because the quantity of information is overwhelming. For example, It shows me long track/violent tornados for North Carolina in the middle section of the page, but I can't tell why it only shows NC or how to change it to an other state.

 

[Ethan Schisler]

Wow what a awesome tool. I have one question though. It appears as though some of the events are missing tornadoes? May 13, 1995 for example, a high risk day here in Illinois, there were 2 F4 tornadoes (one near Raritan/Roseville and the other near Ipava), it only shows the Ipava storm tornadoes? I realize this was 21 years ago, however this isn't the only source I've seen that leaves these tornadoes out. I'm curious as to why this is, if anyone has insight into this, I'd greatly appreciate it. Especially considering this event is one that is of great interest to me, probably one of the few that sparked my interest in weather.


Here is the NCDC article on the missing F4 in this database: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=10320748

There was also another significant F2 that came after that across Southern Knox County in which I don't see shown.

 

[Michael Towers]

Well done, the extensive parameter data alone makes it a fantastic resource for events and the inclusion of radar and satellite (where applicable) is simply superb. I assume the tool will be updated to incorporate future events but will the data for >=1 expand to events prior to 1979 or is that part of the timeline complete?

 

[Tim Paitz]

Wow. I want to thank whoever created this page! I do, have the same question as Chris: how do you change it to a different state as it only shows north Carolina?

 

[Shawn Schuman]

Wow what a awesome tool. I have one question though. It appears as though some of the events are missing tornadoes? May 13, 1995 for example, a high risk day here in Illinois, there were 2 F4 tornadoes (one near Raritan/Roseville and the other near Ipava), it only shows the Ipava storm tornadoes? I realize this was 21 years ago, however this isn't the only source I've seen that leaves these tornadoes out. I'm curious as to why this is, if anyone has insight into this, I'd greatly appreciate it. Especially considering this event is one that is of great interest to me, probably one of the few that sparked my interest in weather.

Here is the NCDC article on the missing F4 in this database: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=10320748

There was also another significant F2 that came after that across Southern Knox County in which I don't see shown.

The layout is kind of confusing at first, but near the top of the page there are three navigation bars: "History," "Meteorology" and "Timescale." Timescale allows you to change the time period displayed, so to see the tracks for every tornado in a given event, you want to click "All." Alternatively, if you mouse over "Tornado Tracks" you can choose to display tornado tracks in either 3-hour or 6-hour intervals, and you can then change the time under Timescale by clicking whatever time you want or using the < and > arrows.

There's also a tutorial under About -> Webpage Tutorial, but I haven't watched it so I'm not sure how helpful it'd be.

 

[Shawn Schuman]

Wow. I want to thank whoever created this page! I do, have the same question as Chris: how do you change it to a different state as it only shows north Carolina?

I may be wrong, but I don't think you can change it. It appears to be just a bit of random information they've included, not sure why. Same with the tornado photo slideshow below it.

 

[chrisbroyles]

Wow what a awesome tool. I have one question though. It appears as though some of the events are missing tornadoes? May 13, 1995 for example, a high risk day here in Illinois, there were 2 F4 tornadoes (one near Raritan/Roseville and the other near Ipava), it only shows the Ipava storm tornadoes? I realize this was 21 years ago, however this isn't the only source I've seen that leaves these tornadoes out. I'm curious as to why this is, if anyone has insight into this, I'd greatly appreciate it. Especially considering this event is one that is of great interest to me, probably one of the few that sparked my interest in weather. View attachment 11622


Here is the NCDC article on the missing F4 in this database: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=10320748

There was also another significant F2 that came after that across Southern Knox County in which I don't see shown.

Ethan, I'm not sure why the Raritan/Roseville F4 tornado and southern Knox County F2 tornado are left out of the SPC tornado track database (1950 to Current). I will look into this. If these are mistakes, then we will make the corrections in our database. If there is some other reason, I'll try to get back to you. Thanks for the heads up on the missing tornadoes.

 

[chrisbroyles]

Well done, the extensive parameter data alone makes it a fantastic resource for events and the inclusion of radar and satellite (where applicable) is simply superb. I assume the tool will be updated to incorporate future events but will the data for >=1 expand to events prior to 1979 or is that part of the timeline complete?

Michael, we will be adding the previous year's F4 cases once the official tornado tracks become available each spring. The processing of cases is difficult because of the extensive amount of data and large number of images that are created for each case. However, we will work on updating the cases as weather permits. Thank you for your kind comments.

 

[chrisbroyles]

It's interesting, but I am having some trouble figuring out how to work the page in some areas because the quantity of information is overwhelming. For example, It shows me long track/violent tornados for North Carolina in the middle section of the page, but I can't tell why it only shows NC or how to change it to an other state.

Chris, the window that shows the longtrack violent tornadoes for North Carolina is just another place for us to display interesting case data. This window is static. We will change the display occasionally with some other graphic once we find something cool.

I understand your feeling of being overwhelmed by the amount of data. I would recommend viewing the tutorial when you get a chance. The tutorial will help you become familiar with how to navigate through the webpage more effectively.

 

[chrisbroyles]

The layout is kind of confusing at first, but near the top of the page there are three navigation bars: "History," "Meteorology" and "Timescale." Timescale allows you to change the time period displayed, so to see the tracks for every tornado in a given event, you want to click "All." Alternatively, if you mouse over "Tornado Tracks" you can choose to display tornado tracks in either 3-hour or 6-hour intervals, and you can then change the time under Timescale by clicking whatever time you want or using the < and > arrows.

There's also a tutorial under About -> Webpage Tutorial, but I haven't watched it so I'm not sure how helpful it'd be.

Shawn, you're right. The webpage is not intuitive at first. As a person becomes more familiar with how to navigate around, the webpage can become a powerful way to compare tornado events in a very short amount of time. We wanted to make everything available in one place and to reduce the amount of navigation time as much as possible in order to maximize data retention for the user.

As you mentioned, there is a webpage tutorial. It is just under 15 minutes long and I show how to use all the different aspects of the webpage. Viewing the tutorial should be well worth it and make the webpage much easier to use.

 

[Shawn Schuman]

Shawn, you're right. The webpage is not intuitive at first. As a person becomes more familiar with how to navigate around, the webpage can become a powerful way to compare tornado events in a very short amount of time. We wanted to make everything available in one place and to reduce the amount of navigation time as much as possible in order to maximize data retention for the user.

As you mentioned, there is a webpage tutorial. It is just under 15 minutes long and I show how to use all the different aspects of the webpage. Viewing the tutorial should be well worth it and make the webpage much easier to use.

It certainly is an incredible resource once you get the hang of it. I think it just overwhelms people at first because of the sheer amount of information. Huge thanks to you and to everyone else who put this together, I'm sure I'll be getting a ton of use out of it. And thanks for including links to my blog as well!

 

[chrisbroyles]

Wow what a awesome tool. I have one question though. It appears as though some of the events are missing tornadoes? May 13, 1995 for example, a high risk day here in Illinois, there were 2 F4 tornadoes (one near Raritan/Roseville and the other near Ipava), it only shows the Ipava storm tornadoes? I realize this was 21 years ago, however this isn't the only source I've seen that leaves these tornadoes out. I'm curious as to why this is, if anyone has insight into this, I'd greatly appreciate it. Especially considering this event is one that is of great interest to me, probably one of the few that sparked my interest in weather. View attachment 11622


Here is the NCDC article on the missing F4 in this database: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=10320748

There was also another significant F2 that came after that across Southern Knox County in which I don't see shown.

The F2 in southern Knox County, Illinois shows up on the webpage at the 21Z time for May 13, 1995. The other tornadoes occur at the 00Z time for May 14, 1995. So the F2 in Knox county is on the webpage. We are looking at the Raritan F4 tornado which is not in the SPC database. We should be adding that one after doing some more research. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. It may be awhile before I can update the webpage for this tornado.

 

[Ethan Schisler]

Thank you @chrisbroyles I appreciate it!

 

[Robert Forry]

Oh man, my nerd overload level just elevated by 50% looking at this site..