What state received the most tornadoes in 2006??

Question

Don't give me Texas unless you can back it up with a source. Texas had a severe drought. No hurricanes hit this year so unlikely it would be Florida. If I'm wrong prove it to me. I would bet it would be either Illinois, Missouri,or maybe Mississippi. I would not rule out Tennesse also. Watching the weather channel those states got hammered this year.

Answer 1

The Storm Prediction Center has put together some spectacular websites detailing recent severe weather reports.

Check out http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/online/monthly/2006_annual_summary.html

As you can see, Missouri was by far the "winner" with 204 tornado reports.
Illinois finished a very distant second with 104, with Texas, Kansas, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi rounding out the top 7, all with 50+ reports this year.

These are preliminary numbers taken from the SPC daily reports. Because this site is preliminary, you'll commonly find some reports are repeated and others haven't made it in yet. When they get cleaned up, they will eventually be put into the NCDC's storm data information ( http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwEvent~Storms )... though I don't offhand know of any sites breaking this official data down as well as the SPC pages do. So the "official" numbers may end up being a bit different from those SPC numbers I gave you... but not by that great a deal usually.

You can also go back and look at 2004 and 2005 numbers by changing the year in the address I gave you for 2006.

Missouri got SLAMMED bad back in March and April, some of the worst outbreaks in recent memory. And, yes, Illinois took some pretty big hits in that period, too. It started out looking like the year would decimate all previous tornado records (of course, the trend is that reports are increasing each and every year... the theories for why are varied, including more chasers, more populated locations, higher weather awareness)... but the second half of the year was quite quiet indeed. Here in Florida we did indeed have a quiet year compared to all the tropical tornadoes we had the past two years... though we did have a few small events in our area, including last Monday. But all-in-all, it was a busy year, but not too out of the ordinary nationally in my mind... and I can point out that most storm chasers consider it a very poor year overall, as there haven't been many of the traditional major setups across the Plains.

Hey, I just found the page where NCDC has done some statistics on the older "official" data:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/severeweather/tornadoes.html#maps

Check out http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/tornado/small/avgt5304.gif specifically to get an idea of how this year compared to the longterm averages around the country.

Interesting stuff! Hopefully next year will bring both more exciting weather, and less damage and harm!

Answer 2

Illinois received the most tornadoes in 2006. Here's the article from the AP:

State Sets Record For Tornadoes In 2006

(AP) BLOOMINGTON, Ill. A record 126 tornadoes spun through Illinois in 2006, breaking a state record set three years ago and dwarfing the 19 tornadoes that hit the Land of Lincoln last year.

But the National Weather Service isn't ready to close the books just yet.

"Any time of the year, even in the middle of the winter, we can get tornadoes ... We have three more weeks to go," said Chris Miller, a meteorologist with the weather service office in Lincoln.

Mild weather in January and February, along with a vigorous storm track over Illinois early in the spring, were key factors in the record-breaking number of twisters, Miller said. The rest of the year, the number of tornadoes was close to the average, he said.

Weather experts said better detection -- not climate change -- may explain the increase.

Jim Angel, Illinois state climatologist, said the average number of severe tornadoes has remained unchanged over the past half century. But more smaller, "weak" tornadoes are being logged because of radar improvements, expanded weather-spotter networks and the prevalence of cell phones, he said.

"In the past, some would spin out in a farm field and never be seen by anyone but the farmer," Angel said. "But it's pretty hard for a tornado to escape notice anymore ... there are fewer and fewer of these slipping through the cracks."

Warnings of approaching storms also issued sooner, Angel and Miller said.

Before advanced Doppler radar arrived in central Illinois in the mid-1990s, warnings preceded the arrival of severe storms by just three to four minutes; now warnings are sounded 15 to 16 minutes before a storm strikes.

One Illinois death was blamed on tornadoes this year. There were no tornado-related deaths last year, nine in 2004, two in 2003 and four in 2002, according to the National Weather Service.

After recording one tornado apiece in January and February, Illinois saw 21 in March, 60 in April, 17 in May, two in June, 16 in July and six in September. There were no tornadoes in August, October, November or -- as of Thursday -- December.

Sangamon County led the way with 11 tornadoes, followed by Logan and Christian counties with nine each. Macon County had eight, two more than Champaign, Madison, Piatt and Pike counties.

Answer 3

I'd wait for all the data to roll in - The Houston, TX area got a whole basketful of the them within the last couple of days

Answer 4

I would say Tennesse. But I dont know for sure.

Answer 5

i will say illinois it seems like i remember them getting it good a few times this year possibly alabama

Answer 6

The one with the most trailer parks.