What this site is
Tornado Hub started as a single interactive damage simulator and grew into a broader resource. The core idea is simple: tornadoes are widely misunderstood — from what they actually are, to how they form, to what to do when a warning is issued. Most freely-available information is either too shallow (the-weather-in-30-seconds explainers) or too specialized (peer-reviewed meteorology).
We aim for the middle: rigorous, referenced, and readable in ten minutes. Every article cites sources you can verify. Every safety guide is written for someone who might actually need it in the next 24 hours.
⚠️ Not a real-time warning system
Nothing on this site is a substitute for NOAA Weather Radio, Wireless Emergency Alerts, or your local NWS forecast office. If a tornado warning is issued for your location, follow official channels.
Editorial approach
We write in plain English. We use "warning" and "watch" the way meteorologists use them. When there's genuine scientific uncertainty — like the eastward-shifting Tornado Alley debate or the exact wind speed of a poorly-instrumented tornado — we say so. When there's a myth (overpasses as shelter, "tornadoes don't cross rivers"), we say so more forcefully.
We take casualty statistics seriously and try not to sensationalize. Historical event articles focus on what happened, what changed after, and what the meteorological record shows — not disaster-porn narratives.
The simulator
The simulator lets you place an EF0–EF5 tornado anywhere in the world and see modeled fatalities, structural damage, and economic loss. It's a teaching tool — not a forecast tool. The math behind it uses:
- HAZUS-MH fragility curves for building damage by construction type
- Simmons & Sutter (2005) and Ashley (2007) casualty models
- NOAA Storm Data injury:fatality ratios (~15:1)
- Warning-effectiveness attenuation of ~1.8% per minute of lead time
- 2.5× nighttime lethality multiplier (Ashley 2007)
Population density comes from the US Census Bureau (ACS 5-Year Estimates 2022), Statistics Canada (2021 Census, census-division level), and UN World Population Prospects 2023 + CIA World Factbook for 173 other countries. When you place a tornado outside US/Canada, we apply a regional construction profile — a Bangladesh tornado uses ~40% informal/mobile housing, not the US default of 55% wood-frame.
Primary data sources
- NOAA Storm Events Database — every US tornado since 1950
- Storm Prediction Center — outlooks, verification, research
- US Census Bureau ACS — 2022 5-year estimates, county-level
- Statistics Canada — 2021 Census of Population, Table 98-10-0002-02
- UN World Population Prospects 2023 — country-level population
- CIA World Factbook — country land area
- NWS local office narratives — event-by-event summaries
- Peer-reviewed atmospheric science — cited inline when relevant
What we're not
We're not affiliated with NOAA, NWS, FEMA, or any government agency. We're not a certified storm shelter installer, insurance broker, or emergency management authority. When we recommend a product (like a specific NOAA weather radio model), we say so as an editorial recommendation — most links to Amazon and third-party services are affiliate links that help fund the site.
Support
The site runs on ad revenue and affiliate commissions. If you find it useful, the best thing you can do is share a link to a specific article with someone else. That's how a small independent resource stays online.
Contact
For corrections, source questions, or feedback: this site doesn't accept guest posts, sponsored content, or link exchanges. Please don't email about those.
A note on tone
Some of what's on this site is technical. Some is grim — tornadoes kill people every year, and we don't sugarcoat that. But we're also unabashedly fascinated by tornadoes as a phenomenon. Weather is one of the last visceral, unpredictable, awe-inspiring things left. Understanding it makes you less afraid, not more.