Can Elevation be Associated with the 2011 Joplin, Missouri, Tornado Fatalities? An Empirical Study

The 2011 Joplin, MO, USA, tornado set a record in terms of the number of lives lost-no other tornado in the United States had killed as many as 161 people since 1950. There are many stochastic parameters that can affect the speed, direction, and magnitude of a tornado and it is thought that elevation may play a role in tornado intensity. The Joplin tornado created a track whose elevation was approximately 50 m from beginning to end, providing the impetus to examine whether or not the elevation change over the damage path tornado is associated with fatalities that resulted from the event. Using data collected from various sources, and the application of GIS as well as non-parametric statistics, we reveal that the elevation and tornado fatalities are inversely related, however; the relationship is not statistically significant, the reasons for which are discussed.