US Tornadoes 1950-2022 Analysis

The United States of America has the highest number of tornadoes on earth by a long way.

The scope of this report is to provide an overview of when and where tornados are most likely to occur, with a view to anticipate frequency rates of tornadoes in certain areas, the times of year and day they occur and how that translates into loss of life, with a view to focus education of the public on the risks.

Questions

The questions to be answered here as follows:

1. What longitudes and latitudes have tornadoes concentrated in the United States from 1950 - 2022, simply where is 'Tornado Alley' located geospatially?

2. Which States have the highest total number of tornadoes and the highest total number of fatalities from 1950 to 2022?

3. Which states have the highest tornadoes and fatalities as a proportion of all tornadoes and fatalities?

4. Is there a relationship between fatality rate (deaths per tornado) for a state and the states median household income?

5. What months of the year have the greatest number of tornadoes with magnitude EHF-4 and EHF-5 occurred?

6. What hours of the day have the greatest number of tornadoes with magnitude EHF-4 and EHF-5 occurred?

7. Has the month and hour with most tornadoes changed over time 1950 - 2022?

Data Files

Below is a brief description of the datafiles used, in the Data Inspection and Cleaning section each csv with be loaded, cleaned and prepped, and its columns will be reviewed in more detail before the data analysis.

"actual_tornadoes1950_2022.csv"

All tornadoes recorded from 1950 to 2022 data from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC).

This dataset will be used for every question and be our primary source, however we will integrate other datasets to enhance our analysis.

(Storm Prediction Center Maps, Graphics, and Data Page, no date)

"household_median_income.csv"

This file contains median household income for every US State since 1984, unfortunately was unable to locate data back to 1950.

Each state has data for median household income in the dollars of the year, and also in 2022 dollars.

We will use this data in Question 5 when reviewing relationship between fatality rates and the relative wealth of a state.

(Historical Income Tables: Households, no date)

"usstate_abbr-name.csv"

This dataset simply contains the US State Abbreviations and the State Names in full to merge with our primary tornado data.

(“List of State Abbreviations (Download CSV, JSON),” n.d.)

"cb_2022_us_state_20m"

This file and its corresponding files in folder "shapefiles" from US Data.gov will be used to create a geospatial map in Question 1.

(‘2022 Cartographic Boundary File (SHP), United States, 1:20,000,000’, no date)

Summary

Analysis here provided many learnings, particularly that more tornadoes in a state is not the determining factor for greater loss of life.

There seems to be a trend that the poorer states have a higher proportion of deaths from tornadoes than ones with a higher income.

The data shows there are months of the year and times of day when risk is significantly higher particularly for tornadoes of magnitude 4 or 5, the most dangerous for loss of life, property and crops.

Briefly I believe a deeper analysis is required into how climate change and global temps are affecting in recent times as well.

Link to Code for full Analysis, Visualizations and Conclusions