Sixty years of tornadoes

That screenshot? It's the tracks of all the tornadoes over the last 60 years, at least those that caused enough damage to be recorded. It's intimidating, but a little misleading, since that's all of them  since 1951. You can see a video of the tracks by year below, produced by IDV Solutions. Each trail (or dot) is an individual tornado; the fiercer the winds the brighter the trail.

 

You can also find a longer video with the tracks by month here.

NOAA answers some basic questions about tornadoes, here.

Interactive wildfire map

Thanks to our friends at Climate Central for this handy map showing active wildfires in the US. If you click in you can get the name of the fire, the fire's size in acres, and other information. The map is updated daily.

NYC Marathon Graphics and Sports Stat Quiz

The NYC Marathon was run yesterday (in case you missed it). In preparation, on Saturday the NY Times carried a graphic showing changes in population and income along the race route since 1976, when the race expanded to all five boroughs. A screenshot of the Times graphic is below.

I watched the race for a while from Fourth Avenue between Carroll and Garfield Streets, towards the end of Mile 8. I saw the runner I planned to meet there, and then I saw two others I hadn't. What are the chances of that? More than 48,000 runners started.

On Sunday, the Times' Education Supplement carried an article about sports statistics classes, and you can try to figure it out yourself. Or you can try some problems with real solutions in the Times quiz here.