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Tornadoes All Over the Place
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Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow for the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook. Anybody can tell you you're more likely to hear a tornado siren in Kansas than you are in Michigan or Colorado. The Great Plains are in Tornado Alley, and that's where tornadoes hang out. But is it where the most people come up against tornadoes? You may be surprised to hear what Tom Schmidlin and Eric Parker of Kent State University have to say.

   
Oldest known photograph of a tornado - NOAA Historical Photo Collection

They've examined all the tornado warnings issued across the U.S. for one year, 1997. All told, over 100 million Americans were in at least one tornado warning area at some point in 1997. That's almost half of the entire nation. When you break down the results by state, it gets even more interesting.

In Florida, 96% percent of the population was threatened by at least one tornado warning. In Michigan, it was 72%. But in Oklahoma, only 62% of the public was in a warning. Even Arizona had a higher percentage than that.

Why? Because when densely populated areas, Phoenix for example, finds itself in a tornado warning, that affects a big chunk of Arizona's population. In farm states however, like Oklahoma and Iowa, the population is more spread out, so it's harder for one twister to affect as many people.

Which states are the safest? Six of the lower 48 states had no tornado warnings at all in 1997: Nevada, Utah, Delaware, New Jersey, Vermont, and Maine. Now if you live in these six fine states, don't get too smug. Every U.S. state has at least one tornado on record, and that includes Alaska and Hawaii.

Thanks to contributing writer Bob Henson. The Weather Notebook is underwritten by Subaru, the beauty of all wheel drive.