Environment
America's Most Violent Tornadoes Since 1950, Seen on One Blustery Map
Twister activity gets intriguing treatment in this explorable visualization.
Now that the American tornado season is petering out – petering but not over, as twisters can strike in any month – it's worth looking at what kind of year the country had in terms of big spinning dreidels of destruction.
The good news it that the total number of tornadoes appears like it will be far lower compared to previous years. At the end of August there were 710 verified touchdowns, according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. Preliminary stats for September and October add roughly 50 more. With only two months of 2013 left to go it's unlikely the twister count will get near that of past years: 939 in 2012, 1,691 in terrible 2011, and 1,282 in 2010.