The correlation between US tornadoes and Pacific Sea surface temperatures

The correlation between tornadic activity in several regions of the United States and the monthly mean sea surface temperature over four zones in the tropical Pacific Ocean is examined. Tornadic activity is gauged with two mo stly independent measures: the number of tornadoes per month, and the numbe r of tornadic days per month. Within the assumptions set forth for the anal ysis, it is found that there appears to exist a statistically significant b ut very weak correlation between sea surface temperature in the Pacific Oce an and tornadic activity in the United States, with the strength and signif icance of the correlation depending on the coordinates at which the sea sur face temperatures are assessed and the geographic region of the United Stat es. The strongest evidence found is for the correlation between the number of days with strong and violent (F2 and greater) tornadoes in an area that runs from Illinois to the Atlantic Coast, and Kentucky to Canada and a cool sea surface temperature in the central tropical Pacific. However, there is only about a 53% chance of this relationship occurring in a specific month .