Compute This!
Alabama Science Olympiad
2006 Division C State Finals
Samford University
Killer Tornadoes and Hurricanes
Event judge: Brian Toone
brtoone@samford.edu
Problem Background
Hurricanes and tornadoes are deadly. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has
devoted a large amount of research towards predicting these particular weather phenomena. In today’s
competition, you will be looking through the noaa.gov website to find information about tornadoes and
hurricanes that have occurred in the recent past. You, as an Alabama 2006 Compute This! State finalist, will
complete the following tasks to find out just how deadly hurricanes and tornadoes have been in the recent past:
1. Calculate the combined total number of deaths per year caused by hurricanes and tornadoes for the years
2000-2005. Use the following guidelines for deciding which deaths to count:
Tornadoes: Only include deaths from tornadoes that occurred within the United States.
Hurricanes: Include only the deaths reported to the National Hurricane Center due to hurricanes that
formed over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, or the Gulf of Mexico. You should not include any deaths
specifically designated as “indirect” deaths. Include all other deaths, no matter how remotely related to the
hurricane they may seem. Include deaths that occurred in any country affected by the hurricane. If the death
toll includes any estimated figures, use the bottom end of the estimate as your figure to include in the total.
2. Plot the following three statistics for the years 2000-2005 on a single graph:
i. The total number of deaths per year that you calculated in Task 1 (line graph)
ii. The total number of killer Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf Of Mexico hurricanes per year (bar graph)
iii. The total number of killer US tornadoes per year (bar graph)
You should use two different scales for the y axis of your graph. One scale should be used for the total number
of deaths per year. The other scale should be used for your plot of the total number of killer tornadoes per year
and for your plot of the total number of killer hurricanes per year. All of these plots should be neatly formatted
on one graph as follows: the number of deaths per year should be plotted using a line. The number of killer
hurricanes and the number of killer tornadoes per year should both be plotted using bars on the graph.
Note: A killer hurricane is defined as one for which the National Hurricane Center reports at least one fatality
that is not specifically designated as an “indirect” fatality.
Here is an example showing the calculations for tasks 1 and 2 above. First, there were 94 fatalities caused by 34
killer tornadoes in the U.S. There were also 82 direct fatalities caused by 5 killer Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf of
Mexico hurricanes. The total number of deaths for 1999 would be calculated by adding 94 and 82 to get 176
total deaths. Note: Hurricane Irene caused 8 “indirect” fatalities, but no other fatalities. Therefore, Hurricane
Irene would not be counted as a killer hurricane for the year 1999.
3. Answer five short answer questions about tornadoes and hurricanes.
i. Concerning tornadoes, in what year did more people die in schools or churches than in mobile homes?
ii. Describe how tornadoes form.
iii. Describe how tornadoes are categorized. What scale system is used for classification? Give a short
summary of the damage caused by tornadoes from each category.
iv. What was the deadliest hurricane during the years 2000-2005? Where did the deaths occur? List the
country or countries in which deaths occurred and how many deaths occurred in each country.
v. What are the primary ingredients for a hurricane?
Resources
 Historical tornado information (including deaths) can be found starting from this page:
http://www.noaa.gov/tornadoes.html

Historical hurricane information (including deaths) can be found starting from this page:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
Important Instructions
 Use the supplied Scoring Rubric to identify specific scoring values associated with each task.


Use a web browser to locate the relevant information about hurricanes and tornadoes that have occurred
in the recent past. All necessary data and all answers to short answer questions can be found within the
noaa.gov domain.
.
Save the answers to the five short answer questions in a Word document. Be sure to include links to
the exact URL which contains the answer to the question.

Save your Excel and Word files as (schoolnamenumber).xls and (schoolnamenumber).doc

Submit your Excel and Word files by following the instructions available at the following website:
http://linux.toonesalive.com/test/science.php
You will be required to enter your school name and number as well as a password. The password you
should use is the following:
sc1ence0
In case the font doesn’t come through clearly, that is “scienceo” with the “i” replaced by the number one
and the o replaced by the number zero.