I had the opportunity to visit two schools on Friday for Project: Tornado 2013. My first stop in the morning was near Poplar Grove at North Boone Upper Elementary School, where I spoke with 5th and 6th graders. My second stop of the day brought me to Franklin Grove, where I spoke with 3rd and 4th graders at Ashton Franklin Center Elementary School.
A great question was brought up at AFC and it stumped me! The question was: ‘How many tornadoes touch down each year in Illinois?’
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Question of the Day
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Number of Tornadoes per 10,000 sq. mi. per Year
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Number of Tornadoes per Year
After digging around for the answer, I found that 54 tornadoes occur in the Prairie State during an average year. This climatological average was derived from all tornadoes that touched down between 1991 and 2010. This ranks Illinois as 6 out of all 50 states for the most tornadoes per year! Of course, this is a climatological average, so some years will see more and some years will see far less. In 2006, 124 tornadoes were observed in Illinois. In 2012, however, only 39 tornadoes touched down in Illinois. Wisconsin averages 24 tornadoes per year, ranking it at 20 out of all 50 states.
Another statistic that better portrays the yearly tornado threat in Illinois is the average number of tornadoes per 10,000 square miles. Illinois’ average is 9.7 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles and Wisconsin’s is 4.5 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles. How big is 10,000 square miles? To give you an idea, the size of all 13 counties in the 13 WREX viewing area put together is just 7,695 square miles.
-Joe
Posted under Project: Tornado, safety, severe weather, statistics, tornado, weather