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Tornado Season 2011 continues with major multi-vortex twisters in Oklahoma and Midwest (video, maps, books)

Large, violent tornadoes can cause catastrophi...
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A gigantic tornado in Edmond / Piedmont Oklahoma City is captured live by a local television camera. The super size, multi vortex tornado cell was at at least half a mile wide. The tornado was part of a cluster that affected the entire Midwest for more than two weeks.

The 2011 tornado season is not the most destructive on record. According to the weather service, the statistics indicate that short of a major tornado incident by the end of the week, we still have to catch up withe some record years and their destructive effects:

TORNADO COUNT MAY 2011

— Tornadoes until May 24, 2011: >100.

— Average number of tornadoes in May during the past decade: 298.

— Record for tornados in May: 542, in 2003.

— Tornadoes so far in 2011: Approximately 1,000.

— Average number of tornadoes in a single year during the past decade: 1,274.

— Highest recorded number of tornadoes in a single year: 1,817, in 2004 .

DEATH TOLL FROM TORNADOES MAY 2011

— People killed in 2011 : 487.

— Highest recorded death toll in a single year: 519, in 1953.

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Map of Piedmont, OK and surrounding areas affected by tornadoes in May 2011

United Sates areas most likely to be impacted by tornadoes (probability map of tornado occurrence derived from 60 consecutive tornado seasons)

 

Tornado Impact 1950-2008
Tornado Impact 1950-2008

Tornado related videos and Kindle books

 

Sorin Adam Matei

Assistant Vice President for Partnerships in Strategic Defense Innnovation and Professor of Communication at Purdue University, Director of the FORCES initiative leads research teams that study the relationship between technological and social systems using big data, simulation, and mapping approaches. He published papers and articles in Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Information Society, National Interest, and Foreign Policy. He is the author or co-editor of several books. The most recent is Structural differentation in social media. He also co-edited Ethical Reasoning in Big Data,Transparency in social media and Roles, Trust, and Reputation in Social Media Knowledge Markets: Theory and Methods (Computational Social Sciences) , all three the product of the NSF funded KredibleNet project. Dr. Matei's teaching portfolio includes technology and strategy, online interaction, and digital media analytics classes. A former BBC World Service journalist, his contributions have been published in Esquire and several leading Romanian newspapers. In Romania, he is known for his books Boierii Mintii (The Mind Boyars), Idolii forului (Idols of the forum), and Idei de schimb (Spare ideas).

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