V
ORTEK LLCAs part of an ongoing company-funded research study of tornadic risk assessment, by means of the Site Assessment of Tornado Threat (SATT) software*, VorTek has determined the rankings of the top twenty tornado-prone cities for the month of May. The rankings, based on National Weather Service data from 1950 through 2007, are as follows:
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DISTURBED LAND |
|
RANK |
CITY |
ACF (%) |
AREA (ACRES) |
|
1 |
Oklahoma City, OK |
0.0539 |
434 |
|
2 |
Huntsville, AL |
0.0382 |
307 |
|
3 |
Lincoln, NE |
0.0369 |
296 |
|
4 |
Topeka, KS |
0.0362 |
291 |
|
5 |
Wichita, KS |
0.0293 |
236 |
|
6 |
Overland Park, KS |
0.0291 |
234 |
|
7 |
Kansas City, KS |
0.0259 |
208 |
|
8 |
Independence, MO |
0.0234 |
188 |
|
9 |
Lubbock, TX |
0.0233 |
188 |
|
10 |
Minneapolis, MN |
0.0216 |
174 |
|
11 |
St. Paul, MN |
0.0205 |
165 |
|
12 |
Kansas City, MO |
0.0193 |
155 |
|
13 |
St. Louis, MO |
0.0164 |
132 |
|
14 |
Tulsa, OK |
0.0155 |
124 |
|
15 |
Springfield, IL |
0.0140 |
113 |
|
16 |
Perioa, IL |
0.0140 |
113 |
|
17 |
Houston, TX |
0.0139 |
112 |
|
18 |
Birmingham, AL |
0.0125 |
100 |
|
19 |
Pasadena, TX |
0.0118 |
95 |
|
20 |
Sioux Falls, SD |
0.0112 |
90 |
The ACF "Annual Coverage Fraction" represents the average fraction of land area within a 20-mile radius of the city disturbed by tornadoes during May for the 58-year period from 1950 through 2007. The "disturbed land area" represents the average number of acres of land within a 20-mile radius of the city disturbed by tornadoes during May for the same 58-year period.