Tornado records

This is a list of some tornado records.

1 Tornado outbreaks
2 Tornado casualties and damage
3 Largest and most powerful tornadoes
4 Early tornadoes
- 4.1 First confirmed tornado and first tornado fatality in the U.S.
5 Exceptional tornado droughts
- 5.1 Longest span without a tornado rated F5 or EF5
6 Exceptional survivors
- 6.1 Longest distance carried by a tornado
7 Exceptional coincidences
- 7.1 Codell, Kansas
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Tornado outbreaks

Most tornadoes in single outbreak

The Super Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974 spawned 148 confirmed tornadoes across eastern North America and resulted in the second highest death toll (319) in the United States. Not only did it produce an exceptional number of tornadoes, but it was also an inordinately intense outbreak producing dozens of large, long-track tornadoes, and an incredible 6 F5 and 24 F4 tornadoes. More significant tornadoes occurred within 24 hours than any other week in the tornado record.[1]

Largest outbreak in the fall

Most tornado outbreaks occur in the spring, but there is a secondary peak of tornado activity in the fall. In 1992, 92 tornadoes broke out in 41 hours of continuous tornado activity from November 21 to 23. Many other very large outbreaks have occurred in the fall, especially in November and early December.[2]

Longest continuous outbreak

Under most definitions, the November 1992 tornado outbreak is also the longest continuous tornado outbreak, and among the largest in geographic scope, as well.[2]

Most tornadoes spawned from a hurricane

The greatest number of tornadoes spawned from a hurricane is 123 from Hurricane Frances in 2004.

Tornado casualties and damage

v • d • e10 deadliest Canadian tornadoesRank Name (location) Date Deaths 1 "Regina Cyclone"June 30, 1912≥28 2 Edmonton Tornado July 31, 198727 3 Windsor-Tecumseh, Ontario tornado June 17, 194617 4 Pine Lake Tornado July 14, 200012 5
- - - Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec
Windsor, Ontario tornado August 16, 1888
April 3, 19749
9 7 Barrie, Ontario tornado May 31, 19858 8
- - - Sudbury, Ontario tornado
Sainte-Rose, Quebec tornado August 20, 1970
June 8, 19536
6 10
- - - Bouctouche, New Brunswick tornado
Portage la Prairie, Manitoba tornado August 6, 1879
May 11, 1953 5
5 Source: Environment Canada

v • d • e25 deadliest US tornadoesRank Name (location) Date Deaths 1 "Tri-State"March 18, 1925695 2 Natchez, MS May 6, 1840317 3 St. Louis and East St. Louis May 27, 1896255 4 Tupelo, MS April 5, 1936216 5 Gainesville, GAApril 5, 1936 203 6 Woodward, OK April 9, 1947181 7 Amite, LA and Purvis, MS April 24, 1908143 8 New Richmond, WI June 12, 1899117 9 Flint, MI June 8, 1953116 10
- - - Waco, TX
Goliad, TX May 11, 1953
May 18, 1902114
114 12 Omaha, NE March 23, 1913103 13 Mattoon, IL May 26, 1917101 14 Shinnston, WV June 23, 1944100 15 Marshfield, MO April 18, 188099 16
- - - Gainesville and Holland, GA
Poplar Bluff, MO June 1, 1903
May 9, 192798
98 18 Snyder, OK May 10, 190597 19 Natchez, MS April 24, 1908 91 20 Worcester, MA June 9, 1953 90 21 Starkville, MS and Waco, AL April 20, 192088 22 Lorain and Sandusky, OH June 28, 192485 23 Udall, KS May 25, 195580 24 St. Louis, MO September 29, 1927 79 25 Louisville, KY March 27, 189076 Source: Storm Prediction Center

v • d • e10 costliest US tornadoesRank Area affected Date Damage 1 Adjusted Damage 2 1 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma May 3, 19991000 963 2 Wichita Falls, Texas April 10, 1979400 884 3 Omaha, Nebraska May 6, 1975250 745 4 Lubbock, Texas Tornado May 11, 1970135 558 5 Topeka, Kansas Tornado June 8, 1966100 494 6 Windsor Locks/Poquonock, Connecticut October 3, 1979200 442 7 St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado May 27, 189612 380 8 Xenia, Ohio April 3, 1974100 325 9 North-central Georgia March 31, 197389 321 10 Worcester, MA June 9, 195352 311 Source: Brooks, Harold E.; C.A. Doswell (Feb 2001). "Normalized Damage from Major Tornadoes in the United States: 1890–1999". Weather and Forecasting16 (1): 168-76. American Meteorological Society. 3 1. These are the unadjusted damage totals in millions of US dollars.
2. Raw damage totals adjusted for inflation, in thousands of 1997 USD.
3. Search of NCDC Storm Dataindicates no tornadoes since 1999 have caused more than $210 million in damage, so this source is up-to-date.

v • d • eDeadliest tornadoes or outbreaks by state State Location Date Deaths Alabama Many towns March 21, 193249 Alaska - No deadly tornadoes - Arizona San Xavier Mission Indian Village August 27, 19642 Arkansas Warren January 3, 194955 California - No deadly tornadoes - Colorado Thurman August 10, 192410 Connecticut Wallingford August 9, 187834 Delaware Hartly July 21, 19832 Florida Kissimmee February 22, 199825 Georgia Gainesville April 5, 1936203 Hawaii - No deadly tornadoes - Idaho Ruebens June 7, 19362 Illinois Many towns March 18, 1925606 Indiana Many towns March 18, 192576 Iowa Dewitt/Camanche June 3, 186092 Kansas Udall May 25, 195580 Kentucky Louisville March 27, 189076 Louisiana Gilliam May 13, 190849 Maine Caribou August 11, 19541 Maryland La Plata November 9, 192617 Massachusetts Worcester June 9, 195394 Michigan Flint June 8, 1953115 Minnesota St. Cloud/Sauk Rapids April 14, 188672 Mississippi Natchez May 7, 1840317 Missouri St. Louis May 27, 1896137 Montana Rivulet June 10, 19232 Nebraska Omaha March 23, 1913101 Nevada - No deadly tornadoes - New Hampshire Corydon September 9, 18216 New Jersey New Brunswick June 19, 18355 New Mexico Wagon Mound May 31, 1930
May 11, 19532 New York Shongo
Syracuse September 28, 1884
September 15, 19123 North Carolina Philadelphia February 19, 188423 North Dakota Fargo June 20, 195710 Ohio Lorain/Sandusky June 28, 192485 Oklahoma Woodward April 9, 1947113 Oregon Lexington, Oregon
Long Creek, Oregon June 14, 1888
June 3, 18943 Pennsylvania Greene County June 23, 194426 Rhode Island - No deadly tornadoes - South Carolina Aiken/Timmonsville April 30, 192453 South Dakota Wilmot June 17, 19448 Tennessee Henderson March 21, 195238 Texas Goliad, TX
Waco, TX May 18, 1902
May 11, 1953114 Utah Salt Lake City August 11, 19991 Vermont - No deadly tornadoes - Virginia Scott County May 2, 192913 Washington Vancouver April 5, 19726 West Virginia Many towns June 23, 1944100 Wisconsin New Richmond June 12, 1899117 Wyoming Cheyenne July 16, 19791 Source: [1]

Deadliest single tornado in world history

April 26, 1989 - Bangladesh - A massive tornado claimed 1,300 lives[3]

Deadliest single tornado in US history

The Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925 killed 695 people in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. The outbreak it occurred with was also the deadliest, with a combined death toll of 747 across the Mississippi River Valley.[2]

Most damaging tornado

Similar to fatalities, damage (and observations) of a tornado are a coincidence of what character of tornado interacts with certain characteristics of built up areas. That is, destructive tornadoes are in a sense "accidents" of a large tornado striking a large population. In addition to population and changes thereof, comparing damage historically is subject to changes in wealth and inflation. The St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado of May 27, 1896 incurred the most damages adjusted for wealth and inflation, at an estimated $2.9 billion (1997 USD). In raw numbers, the "Oklahoma City Tornado" of May 3, 1999 is the most damaging.[4]

Largest and most powerful tornadoes

Highest winds observed in a tornado

During the F5 tornado that moved into Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999, a mobile doppler radar situated near the tornado measured winds of 301 +/- 20 mph (484 +/- 32 km/h) momentarily in a small area inside the funnel approximately 100 m (330 ft) above ground level.[5]

Winds were measured at 257-268 mph (414-431 km/h) using portable doppler radar in the Red Rock Tornado during the Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak. Though these winds are possibly indicative of an F5 strength tornado, this particular tornado's path never encountered any significant structures and caused minimal damage. Thus it was rated an F4.[6]

Longest damage path and duration

The longest track single tornado is the Tri-State Tornado, which traversed ≥219 miles (≥352 km) across southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southwestern Indiana in about 3.5 hours. Though there has been some discussion as to whether this was a single tornado or a tornado family, recent and ongoing detailed reanalysis has found no break in the path and in fact that the tornado began 15 mi (24 km) before previously thought.[7]

Longest path and duration tornado family

What at one time was thought to be the record holder for the longest tornado path is now thought to be the longest tornado family, with a track of at least 293 miles (472 km) on May 26, 1917 from the Missouri border across Illinois into Indiana. It caused severe damage and mass casualties in Charleston and Mattoon, Illinois.[2]

What was probably the longest track supercell thunderstorm tracked 790 miles (1,271 km) across six states in 17.5 hours on March 12, 2006 as part of the March 2006 Tornado Outbreak Sequence. It began in Noble County, Oklahoma and ended in Jackson County, Michigan, producing many tornadoes in Missouri and Illinois.[8]

Widest damage width

The widest tornado (defined as damage path, not condensation/debris cloud or radar measurements) on record is the Wilber - Hallam, Nebraska tornado during the outbreak of May 22, 2004, with a width of 2.5 miles (4 km) at its peak.[9]

The widest tornado as measured by actual radar wind measurements was the Mulhall (1999) tornado in northern Oklahoma which occurred during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. The distance between the maximum winds on each side of the tornado (over 110 m/s) was over 1600 m as measured by a DOW radar. Although the tornado passed largely over rural terrain, the width of the wind swath capable of producing damage was as wide as 4 miles (7 km), making the actual wind field of the Mulhall tornado likely twice as wide as that of the Hallam tornado (the wind field of which was not measured), even though the Hallam tornado resulted in a wider damage path.[10]

Highest forward speed

73 mph (117 km/h) from the Tri-State Tornado (other weak tornadoes have approached or exceeded this speed, but this is the fastest forward movement observed in a major tornado).[2]

Greatest pressure drop

A pressure deficit of 100 mb (hPa) was observed when a violent tornado near Manchester, South Dakota on June 24, 2003 passed directly over an in-situ probe. In less than a minute the pressure dropped to 850 mb (hPa), which is the lowest pressure ever recorded at the Earth's surface when adjusted to sea level.[11]

There is a questionable and unofficial citizen's barometer measurement of a 192 mb (hPa) drop around Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1904.[12]

Early tornadoes

First confirmed tornado and first tornado fatality in the U.S.

August 1671 - Rehobeth, Massachusetts
July 8, 1680 - Cambridge, Massachusetts - 1 dead[2]

Exceptional tornado droughts

Longest span without a tornado rated F5 or EF5

Before the Greensburg EF5 tornado on May 4, 2007, it had been 8 years and one day since the US has had a confirmed F5 or EF5 tornado. The last confirmed F5 or EF5 hit southern Oklahoma City and surrounding communities during the May 3, 1999 event.

Exceptional survivors

Longest distance carried by a tornado

Matt Suter of rural Fordland, MO may hold the record for the longest distance traveled by anyone picked up by a tornado who lived to tell about it. On March 12, 2006 he was carried 1307 feet, according to National Weather Service measurements.[13][14]

Exceptional coincidences

Codell, Kansas

The small town of Codell, Kansas, was hit by a tornado on the exact same date three years straight. A tornado hit on May 20, 1916, 1917, and 1918.[15] The U.S. has 100,000 thunderstorms a year; less than 1% produce a tornado. The odds of this coincidence occurring again is extremely small.