The Washington Post reports a "shocking" statistic, namely that Maryland has had the 3rd highest density of tornadoes over the past two decades, beaten out only by Kansas and Florida. How is it we have more than the other Great Plains states?Key word: density. That is, the statistic is the number of tornadoes per 10,000 square miles. That's a bit misleading. In raw numbers, Texas has the highest number (155), followed by Kansas (96), and Florida (66). As you'd expect, the other large numbers are in the central U.S. -- the so-called "Tornado Alley" -- and the deep South (sometimes called "Dixie Alley").
What's more, even looking at density, a mapping of the more powerful tornadoes (F3-F5) over 50 years shows the concentrations pretty much where you'd expect. (See image at right.)Jason Samenow and the Capital Weather Gang at the Post are a great place to get weather forecasts for this area, but I'm afraid in this case the story is more sensationalism than news.
There is one nugget of information I interesting, which is how highly Florida ranks (if you count the lower-strength ones too). That may be because hurricanes often cause tornadoes. In fact, more than half of all landfalling hurricanes produce at least one.
Update (5/31): Here's a really cool graph of tornado paths over the last 56 years. Again, it shows very little activity in the DC/MD/VA area. (Click on it for the full-size version.)
