Tornado climatology study coming soon…

Good afternoon, everyone! I just wanted to offer an update guys…

Currently, I’m knee-deep in a bunch of data from the National Weather Service in Amarillo, Texas. I was able to strike a deal (I asked) with some of the meteorologists to let me borrow (look at) some of the historical tornado data for the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.

I’m working on comparing monthly sea surface temperatures from the Pacific, the Gulf of Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, and yearly rainfall totals for the area as well as tornado reports.

The hope is that I’ll be able to get a better picture of how these different patterns change severe weather on the high plains.

Blue: SST temp change from fall to spring // Red: Number of tornado reports

So far, there hasn’t been much to get excited about, but things are starting to come together.

I’ll have the full report with notes posted soon!



Author of the article:


Nick Lilja

Nick is former television meteorologist with stints in Amarillo and Hattiesburg. During his time in Hattiesburg, he was also an adjunct professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is a graduate of both Oregon State and Syracuse University that now calls Houston home. Now that he is retired from TV, he maintains this blog in his spare time.