Tornadoes in Canada for the Period 1950 to 1979

摘要

This report has attempted to arrive at a set of quantitative conclusions concerning the physical characteristics of tornadoes from what is basically a set of qualitative data. The task was composed of a number of steps: a) finding the data in the first place, b) defining the terms and equations to be used in the study, c) devising a method of dealing with the errors and inconsistencies in the data, d) encoding it into a quantitative form, e) computerizing the encoded data for ease of sorting and calculation, and f) analyzing the result. The results of the study give details concerning the physical dimensions of tornado damage; national maps of tornado incidence and risk; probability of tornado damage in selected cities; diurnal and seasonal frequencies as well as frequencies of travel direction and F-scale number; length of tornado season. An analysis has been made of the distribution of damage length, width and area in order to find whether or not correlations exist among them, and whether or not they can be described in a mathematical fashion. No correlations were found, and although the distributions of these dimensions superficially resembled a log normal curve, this result failed to be statistically significant. (Atomindex citation 16:010182)