Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Jul 1;10(7):e0131090.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131090. eCollection 2015.

Kinetic Energy of Tornadoes in the United States

Tyler Fricker  1 , James B Elsner  1
Affiliations

Kinetic Energy of Tornadoes in the United States

Tyler Fricker et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Tornadoes can cause catastrophic destruction. Here total kinetic energy (TKE) as a metric of destruction is computed from the fraction of the tornado path experiencing various damage levels and a characteristic wind speed for each level. The fraction of the path is obtained from a model developed for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that combines theory with empirical data. TKE is validated as a useful metric by comparing it to other indexes and loss indicators. Half of all tornadoes have TKE exceeding 62.1 GJ and a quarter have TKE exceeding 383.2 GJ. One percent of the tornadoes have TKE exceeding 31.9 TJ. April has more energy than May with fewer tornadoes; March has more energy than June with half as many tornadoes. September has the least energy but November and December have the fewest tornadoes. Alabama ranks number one in terms of tornado energy with 2.48 PJ over the period 2007-2013. TKE can be used to help better understand the changing nature of tornado activity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Distribution of total kinetic energy (TKE).
TKE is computed for each tornado in the SPC database over the period 2007–2013.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Average tornado energy by EF rating category.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Top ten days ranked by daily TKE.
The number of tornadoes is used as a color fill on the bars. Tornado counts are listed to the right of each bar.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Daily aggregated tornado energy by year.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Annually aggregated tornado energy.
Tornado counts are listed to the right of each bar.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Tornado energy and frequency by month.
Fig 7
Fig 7. Tornado energy by state.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Grazulis, TP. Significant Tornadoes, 1880–1989: Discussion and analysis. Significant Tornadoes, 1880–1989. Environmental Films; 1990. Available from: http://books.google.com/books?id=E8hFAAAAYAAJ.
    1. Kuligowski ED, Lombardo FT, Phan LT, Levitan ML, Jorgensen DP. Draft Report, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Technical Investigation of the May 22, 2011, Tornado in Joplin, Missouri. NIST; 2013. NIST NCSTAR—3.
    1. Rupinski, P. Tornado losses may top $2 billion. Tuscaloosa News. 2011 May;.
    1. Elsner JB, Jagger TH, Widen HM, Chavas DR. Daily tornado frequency distributions in the United States. Environmental Research Letters. 2014;9 024018.
    1. Brooks HE. On the relationship of tornado path length and width to intensity. Weather and Forecasting. 2004;19:310–319. 10.1175/1520-0434(2004)019<0310:OTROTP>2.0.CO;2 - DOI

Grants and funding

The authors have no support or funding to report.