Happy Birthday... to us - ustornadoes.com

first_year_searches_more_than_10_visits — Top words in searches to the site that brought 10 or more visits during the first year. (wordle.net)

A year ago, ustornadoes.com was born. Well, more accurately, a year ago @USTornadoes started up on Twitter. Later that day, I began a blog on blogspot.com, but quickly realized that ustornadoes.com was available. Within a week or so, everything was over here.

What began as a random idea has turned into a fulfilling project. Our “team” has grown to five.

In the past year, we’ve published 140 posts. The vast majority thus far cover U.S. tornado climatology, forecasts, and information about tornado outbreaks.

Perhaps our happiest achievement is the connections we’ve built with other tornado-fascinated individuals on social media. After starting from scratch 365 days ago, we’ve connected up with thousands of people, have learned a ton, and gained new ideas from interactions on Twitter and Facebook.

In what was a quiet year for tornadoes in 2012, our biggest day on the site came shortly after its formation — April 3, 2012. This was the day tornadoes impacted the Dallas, Texas area. You can go back and watch the videos here.

Below are our top ten original content items* (ranked by visits) in the first year of the site…

1. Violent F4/EF-4 and F5/EF-5 Tornadoes in the United States since 1950
2. Map: April Tornadoes in the United States
3. The April 3, 2012 Dallas/Fort Worth Tornado Outbreak Compared to Past Events
4. Largest winter tornado outbreaks in the United States
5. Radar images from the March 2012 tornado outbreak
6. Map: U.S. Tornadoes by County, 1950-2011
7. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day tornado history
8. The April 2011 Super Outbreak
9. Strongest tornadoes by state, territory and district in the U.S.
10. Tornado Threat Forecast: January 29-30, 2013

2013 is already off to a quick start, with one of the largest winter tornado outbreaks on record and the year’s first violent tornado in Mississippi. 2011 began in a similar way and ended up as one of the busiest tornado seasons on record. 2012 also started off fast, and it ended up one of the quietest on record.

Either way, we’ll be here and look forward to continuing to examine tornadoes alongside all of you.

*does not include compilations of video from outbreaks