..TORNADO AND SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK IS APRIL 18-22... ...TODAY/S TOPIC IS...PART 4...TORNADO STATISTICS... --------------------------------------------------------------------- IN 2004 WISCONSIN HAD 36 DOCUMENTED TORNADOES...RESULTING IN 1 FATALITY AND 17 INJURIES. THERE HAVE BEEN 1263 DOCUMENTED TORNADOES IN WISCONSIN SINCE 1844...CAUSING 509 DEATHS AND AT LEAST 2969 INJURIES. DATA PRIOR TO 1950 IS INCOMPLETE BECAUSE IN MANY CASES...ONLY LARGE TORNADOES WERE REPORTED AND SOME RURAL TORNADOES WERE UNREPORTED. FOLLOWING ARE WISCONSIN TORNADO OCCURRENCES BY MONTH... 1844- J F M A M J J A S O N D TOTAL 2004 1 0 16 99 212 340 283 152 120 28 6 6 1263 IN 2003 0 0 0 2 4 17 11 0 2 0 0 0 36 30 YEAR NORMAL /1971-2000/ ...21 TORNADOES PER YEAR IN WISCONSIN. THE YEAR OF 1980 HAD THE GREATEST STATE TOTAL WITH 43 TORNADOES. OTHER YEARLY TOTALS INCLUDE: 2004...36 2003...14 2002...26 2001...12 2000...18 1999...11 1998...11 1997...14 1996...21 1995...7 1994...35 1993...37 1992...26 1991...10 1990...9 1989...17 1988...35 1987...16 1986...14 1985...16 1984...34 1983...31 1982...16 1981...21 1980...43 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE FOLLOWING ARE STATISTICS FOR THE AVERAGE TORNADO IN WISCONSIN FROM 1950 THROUGH 2004… DURATION...10.7 MINUTES LENGTH...6.1 MILES WIDTH...128.1 YARDS THE FOLLOWING ARE STATISTICS FOR THE AVERAGE TORNADO IN WISCONSIN FROM 1980 THROUGH 2004… DURATION...7.4 MINUTES LENGTH...3.9 MILES WIDTH...123 YARDS ...WISCONSIN'S WORST TORNADO... NEW RICHMOND/ST. CROIX COUNTY/ TORNADO ON JUNE 12 1899... KILLING 117...INJURING 125...AND DESTROYING OVER 300 BUILDINGS. ...OTHER COSTLY WISCONSIN TORNADOES INCLUDE... OAKFIELD/FOND DU LAC COUNTY/ TORNADO ON JULY 18 1996...INJURING ONLY 12 WITH DAMAGE PEGGED AT 40.4 MILLION DOLLARS /1996 DOLLARS/. IT BECAME A F5 TORNADO EAST OF OAKFIELD. BARNEVELD/IOWA COUNTY/ TORNADO ON JUNE 8 1984...KILLED 9 AND INJURING 200 WITH WITH DAMAGED PEGGED AT 40 MILLION DOLLARS /1984 DOLLARS/. THIS WAS A F5 TORNADO. *********************************************************** ...NUMBER OF THUNDERSTORM DAYS IN WISCONSIN... ON AVERAGE...THE NUMBER OF DAYS PER YEAR WITH THUNDERSTORMS RANGES FROM AROUND 30 ALONG THE LAKE MICHIGAN SHORELINE TO AROUND 40 OVER THE SOUTHWEST THIRD OF THE STATE. ...NUMBER OF TORNADO DAYS IN WISCONSIN... IN THE TORNADO DEPARTMENT...SOUTHWESTERN WISCONSIN NEAR THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AVERAGES ABOUT 1 DAY PER YEAR WITH A TORNADO. THIS AVERAGE DECREASES DOWN TO 0.7 DAYS PER YEAR FOR THE MADISON AREA... 0.6 TORNADO DAYS PER YEAR FOR MILWAUKEE AREA...0.4 DAYS PER YEAR FOR THE GREEN BAY AREA...AND 0.2 TORNADO DAYS PER YEAR FOR NORTHERN WISCONSIN. ...NUMBER OF WARNINGS PER YEAR IN WISCONSIN... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICES THAT SERVICE WISCONSIN ISSUE...ON AVERAGE...ONLY 1 TO 2 TORNADO WARNINGS AND 5 TO 10 SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNINGS PER COUNTY PER YEAR FOR THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. THE AVERAGES ARE LESS FOR NORTHERN WISCONSIN COUNTIES. ...NUMBER OF WATCHES PER YEAR IN WISCONSIN... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WISCONSIN ISSUES ON AVERAGE ABOUT 30 SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCHES PER YEAR THAT COVER AT LEAST SOME PART OF WISCONSIN. THE NUMBER FOR TORNADO WATCHES IN WISCONSIN IS ABOUT 10 PER YEAR. ***************************************************************** THE U.S. NATIONAL AVERAGES FOR THE PERIOD 1982-2004: ...1077 TORNADOES PER YEAR ...57 DEATHS PER YEAR PER YEAR ...21 KILLER TORNADOES PER YEAR YEAR-BY-YEAR BREAKDOWN FOR U.S. FOR 1982-2004 FOLLOWS... YEAR TORNADOES DEATHS KILLER TORNADOES ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1982 1047 64 31 1983 812 34 26 1984 907 122 33 1985 684 94 20 1986 713 15 11 1987 656 59 14 1988 698 32 19 1989 856 50 13 1990 1133 53 17 1991 1127 39 15 1992 1297 39 16 1993 1173 33 16 1994 1085 68 23 1995 1234 29 14 1996 1173 25 13 1997 1148 67 22 1998 1417 130 33 1999 1300 95 29 2000 1071 40 14 2001 1216 40 23 2002 941 55 28 2003 1367 54 23 2004 1722 /PRELIM/ 36 20 /TOTAL OF 1722 IN 2004 IS A PRELIM ALL-TIME RECORD/ ...OTHER NATIONAL TORNADO STATISTICS... ...FOR THE 63 YEAR PERIOD OF 1940-2000...AN AVERAGE OF 80 PEOPLE DIED PER YEAR IN TORNADO SITUATIONS. ...FOR THE 30-YEAR PERIOD OF 1973-2002...AN AVERAGE OF 66 PEOPLE DIED PER YEAR IN TORNADO SITUATIONS. ...FOR THE 10-YEAR PERIOD OF 1993-2002...AN AVERAGE OF 59 PEOPLE DIED PER YEAR IN TORNADO SITUATION. ...OVER 25 PERCENT OF TORNADO DEATHS IN THE LAST DECADE OCCURRED IN MOBILE HOMES. FOR ADDITIONAL SEVERE WEATHER INFORMATION AND UP TO DATE FORECASTS AND WARNINGS PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: http://weather.gov/mkx $$ KAPELA/KONOP