Incredible Heat Map Shows Where Tornadoes Strike The US Most Often

This insane heat map shows the areas of the U.S. where the weather is ripest for creating tornadoes. The data shows the average number of tornado watches per year between 1993 and 2012. The orange and red counties have the highest numbers of watches. It's pretty striking.

You can see that Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama are the real hot spots.

We saw the map when it was tweeted by Corey Powell, editor at large for Discover Magazine and editor-in-chief of American Scientist.

Interestingly, when you look at the average number of tornadoes by state, the numbers tell a different story - with Texas in the lead followed by Kansas and Florida. The inconsistency between the heat map and the by-state numbers is probably due to how large the state is Texas is.