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We like to keep guests updated on how many tornadoes we see and where. We have posted a running total since 2003 (we saw tornadoes in 2001 and 2002 but began documenting them in 2003). With 132 tornado intercepts between 2003 and 2010, it's obvious that our team knows how to forecast and intercept tornadoes.
We also post tornado intercept counts on our homepage for the previous season or the season that is in-progress indicating the date, location and number.
How do we count tornadoes? We count only tornadoes that we are 100 percent certain are tornadoes. We do not count every brief dust whirl or every spin-up beneath an area of strong, persistent rotation. By definition, a tornado is a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground that is associated with a thunderstorm. It is easy to interpret that so that almost any ground swirl can be called a "tornado." We believe there needs to be a distinctive pause in the ground rotation before we count a second tornado and we don't count things that simply "look like a tornado." Sometimes, we see what we think "might" be a tornado, such as strong rotation within an area of precipitation, but we do not add it to our count unless we are absolutely sure. This often requires a lengthy discussion among our team and a close revisit of video and photos. It may require days for us to determine if what we saw was a tornado or not. As scientists, we want to be absolutely sure and accurate in what we post. And, as veteran storm chasers, we see no thrill in calling something a tornado that may not be a tornado.
With our conservative method, it's probable that we don't count every tornado we see, but the ones we do count have been verified.
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