Tornado. Cyclone. Twister.
Whatever you prefer to call them, they're a forced to be reckoned with. But some counties need little reminder of this. Using the Storm Events database from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, weather.com compiled data for each county in the U.S. from 1950 to 2016.
Many of the most prone counties are predominately near or in large metro areas. To remove population from the data, weather.com normalized by population for every 100 residents in the 2010 census. This, in turn, highlighted several other tornado-susceptible counties.
Also, since a given tornado may travel over multiple counties, the dataset isn't strictly the number of tornadoes, but rather number of tornado segments. For example, a tornado tracking over three counties has three tornado segments, one per county, in the database.
With that said, keep reading to see the top 10 counties with the highest tornado segment density, per 100 residents, since 1950 to 2016.
(Source: Shutterstock)
10. Cimarron (Oklahoma)
Tornado segment density (per 100 residents): 2.71
Tornado segments: 67
County population (2010 census): 2,475
9. Briscoe (Texas)
Tornado segment density (per 100 residents): 2.81
Tornado segments: 46
County population (2010 census): 1,637
(Source: Shutterstock)
8. Kent (Texas)
Tornado segment density (per 100 residents): 2.846
Tornado segments: 23
County population (2010 census): 808
(Source: Shutterstock)
7. Hodgeman (Kansas)
Tornado segment density (per 100 residents): 2.853
Tornado segments: 56
County population (2010 census): 1,963
(The state flag of Nebraska. Banner, Nebraska ranks sixth in the top 10 most tornado-prone counties in the U.S., according to weather.com. Source: Shutterstock)
6. Banner (Nebraska)
Tornado segment density (per 100 residents): 3.82
Tornado segments: 29
County population (2010 census): 759
(Source: Shutterstock)
5. Roberts (Texas)
Tornado segment density (per 100 residents): 3.98
Tornado segments: 37
County population (2010 census): 929
(The Cheyenne trails is a popular attraction in North Cheyenne Canon Park. Source: Shutterstock)
4. Cheyenne (Colorado)
Tornado segment density (per 100 residents): 4.14
Tornado segments: 76
County population (2010 census): 1,836
(Source: Shutterstock)
3. Kiowa (Colorado)
Tornado segment density (per 100 residents): 6.15
Tornado segments: 86
County population (2010 census): 1,398
(Source: Shutterstock)
2. King (Texas)
Tornado segment density (per 100 residents): 6.99
Tornado segments: 20
County population (2010 census): 286
(Source: Shutterstock)
1. Loving (Texas)
Tornado segment density (per 100 residents): 7.32
Tornado segments: 6
County population (2010 census): 82
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