The Effects of Tornadoes in Densely Populated Areas.

1
The Effects of Tornadoes in Densely Populated
Areas.
Geog 184
Dawn Searle
29th November 2006
2
Objectives

• What are the risks posed by tornadoes in urban
  areas?
• what large cities, in the USA, are at risk?

• where do most the powerful tornadoes occur?
• what is the cost of the damage caused?

3
Methods

• downloaded data from http//www.crh.noaa.gov/ind/?
  nsvrgis
• looked at where tornadoes occurred
• used query builder to look at large cities only
• used attribute tables to find out information

4
Methods

• clipped data to layers to focus details
• Spatially joined layers to see how close they
  were
• used buffer function to see what areas of city
  would be affected

5
Results

• The eastern United States was the most affected
• 5 states in particular seemed to have highest
  occurrence
• Wichita, Kansas with 200 metre buffer applied

6
Results

• 7 states showing amount of tornadoes
• Amount of damage in thousands of dollars
• Highest damage New York
• lowest damage - Wyoming

7
Results

• Table of most populated cities selection from
  top 30 cities
• amount of damage
• closest f-5 tornado
• Oklahoma only one where tornado has actually hit

8
Conclusion

• problems
• amount of data
• changes in data measurement
• possible data error?
• cost of damage to specific cities

• future
• find separate city information
• increase in technology will help understanding
• look to see what area exactly is affected by
  buffer area