Tornado Records

This article lists various tornado records. The most "extreme" tornado in recorded history was the Tri-State tornado, which spread through parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925. It is considered an F5 on the Fujita Scale, holds records for longest path length at and longest duration at about hours. The 1974 Guin tornado had the highest forward speed ever recorded in a violent tornado, at . The deadliest tornado in world history was the Daulatpur–Saturia tornado in Bangladesh on April 26, 1989, which killed approximately 1,300 people. In the history of Bangladesh, at least 24 tornadoes killed more than 100 people each, almost half of the total for the world. The most extensive tornado outbreak on record was the 2011 Super Outbreak, which resulted in 367 tornadoes and 324 tornadic fatalities, whereas the 1974 Super Outbreak was the most intense tornado outbreak on tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis's outbreak intensity score with 578, as opposed to the 2011 outbreak's 378.

Tornado outbreaks

Most tornadoes in a single 24-hour period

The 2011 Super Outbreak was the largest tornado outbreak spawned by a single weather system in recorded history; it produced 367 tornadoes from April 25–28, with 223 of those in a single 24-hour period on April 27 from midnight to midnight CDT, fifteen of which were violent EF4–EF5 tornadoes. 348 deaths occurred in that outbreak, of which 324 were tornado related. The outbreak largely contributed to the record for most tornadoes in the month of April with 780 tornadoes, almost triple the prior record (267 in April 1974). The overall record for a single month was 542 in May 2003, which was also broken.

The infamous 1974 Super Outbreak of April 3–4, 1974, which spawned 148 confirmed tornadoes across eastern North America, held the record for the most prolific tornado outbreak in terms of overall tornadoes for many years, and still holds the record for most violent, long-track tornadoes (7 F5 and 23 F4 tornadoes). More significant tornadoes occurred within 24 hours than any other day on record. Due to a secular trend in tornado reporting, the 2011 and 1974 tornado counts are not directly comparable.

Most violent tornadoes (F4/EF4 and F5/EF5) in an outbreak

Longest continuous outbreak and largest autumnal outbreak

Most tornado outbreaks in North America occur in the spring, but there is a secondary peak of tornado activity in the fall. It is historically less consistent from year to year but can include exceptionally large or intense outbreaks. In 1992, an estimated 95 tornadoes broke out in a record 41 hours of continuous tornado activity from November 21 to 23. This is also among the largest-known outbreaks in areal expanse. Many other very large outbreaks have occurred in autumn, especially in October and November, such as the 2002 Veterans Day weekend outbreak, in which 83 tornadoes occurred from November 9 to 11, and November 17, 2013, when 73 tornadoes were produced in 11 hours.

Greatest number of tornadoes spawned from a hurricane

The greatest number of tornadoes spawned from a hurricane is 120 from Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, followed by Hurricane Beulah with 115 in September 1967, and 103 from Hurricane Frances in September 2004 (a couple weeks before Ivan). Hurricanes prior to the 1990s, when tornado records were more sparse, perhaps produced more tornadoes than were officially documented.

Tornadoes annually and monthly

Most tornadoes for each calendar month

Most tornadoes in a single year

On average, 1,200 tornadoes happen in a year in the United States. The most confirmed tornadoes in a single year was in 2004, which had 1817 confirmed tornadoes. This was mostly boosted by a large tornado outbreak sequence in May 2004, where 509 tornadoes occurred. It also had help from a very active fall and winter tornado season.

Tornado casualties and damage

Deadliest single tornado in world history

Officially, the deadliest single tornado occurred on April 26, 1989 in Bangladesh, where a large tornado took at least 1,300 lives. In 2022, this tornado's death toll was challenged in a database of Bangladeshi tornadoes maintained by Dr. Fahim Sufi with the Australian Government, claiming that the April 14, 1969, Dhaka tornado, which killed 922 people, was the deadliest in Bangladesh, with the Jamalpur tornado killing only 570.

Deadliest single tornado in US history

The Tri-State tornado of March 18, 1925, killed 695 people in Missouri (11), Illinois (613), and Indiana (71). The outbreak it occurred with was also the deadliest known tornado outbreak, with a combined death toll of 747 across the Mississippi River Valley.

Most intense tornado damage

The original Fujita scale, developed by Ted Fujita, has never been used to assign a final rating over F5 intensity; however, two tornadoes, the 1970 Lubbock tornado and 1974 Xenia tornado, were initially given F6 ratings by Fujita himself, but both were eventually downgraded to F5 ratings. The 1976 Jordan tornado was described by Fujita as the most intense tornado damage he had surveyed up to that point.

A more recent example of extreme damage was at the Double Creek Estates of Jarrell, Texas; the 1997 Jarrell tornado stalled over the area at peak F5 intensity, destroying every home in the subdivision, and killing 27. Extreme ground scouring and high-end F5 damage was surveyed. The 2008 Parkersburg tornado was reported by mayor Bob Haylock to have been so intense that a majority of the fatalities out of Parkersburg were from people taking shelter in basements underground. The 2011 Philadelphia, Mississippi tornado caused extreme ground scouring across its path; up to of soil was removed from the environment, presumably from intense subvortices.

Most damaging tornado

The 1896 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado on May 27, incurred the most damages adjusted for inflation, with an estimated $5.36 billion (2022 USD). In raw numbers, the Joplin tornado of May 22, 2011, is considered the costliest tornado in recent history, with damage totals at $3.71 billion (2022 USD). Until April 2011, the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado of May 3, 1999, was the most costly, which was later surpassed by the 2011 Tuscaloosa–Birmingham tornado, with a damage total of $3.18 billion (2022 USD).

Lists of damage and fatality records

Largest and most powerful tornadoes

Highest winds observed in a tornado

During the F5 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado on May 3, 1999, in the southern Oklahoma City metro area, a Doppler on Wheels situated near the tornado measured winds of momentarily in a small area inside the funnel approximately above ground level. The measured winds in this tornado have been updated to .

On May 31, 2013, a tornado hit rural areas near El Reno, Oklahoma. The tornado was originally rated as an EF3 based on damage; however, after mobile radar data analysis was conducted, it was concluded to have been an EF5 due to a measured wind speed of greater than , second only to the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado. Revised RaXPol analysis found winds of well above ground level and ≥ below with some subvortices moving at . These winds may possibly be as high or higher than the winds recorded on May 3, 1999. Despite the recorded windspeed, the El Reno tornado was later downgraded back to EF3 due to the fact that no EF5 damage was found, likely due to the lack of sufficient damage indicators in the largely-rural area west of Oklahoma City.

During the Greenfield, Iowa EF4 on May 21, 2024, Doppler on Wheels recorded wind speeds of in a very small swath inside the funnel approximately above radar level as the tornado went through town. After doing some mathematical and physics-based calculations, the researchers determined those measured winds were equivalent to . The calculated minimum wind threshold as stated beats both the 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado and the 2013 El Reno, Oklahoma tornado for minimum possible maximum windspeed; however, the highest confirmed peak windspeeds are lower than the 1999 tornado.

Winds were measured at using portable Doppler weather radar in the Red Rock, Oklahoma, tornado during the April 26, 1991, tornado outbreak in north-central Oklahoma. Though these winds are possibly indicative of F5 intensity, this particular tornado's path never encountered any significant structures and caused minimal damage, so it was rated F4.

While never observed, these tornadoes are believed to have had winds of or above, which would make them among the strongest tornadoes in history. There is a questionable analysis of the 1917 Mattoon/Charleston tornado published in the '' Geographical Review'' in 1917 that stated the tornado had strong "inflowing wind, which probably exceeded ". A 1968 Weather Bureau review of the 1968 Hansell-Charles City tornado found intense ground scouring, and initial estimates for wind speeds reached ; these figures were revised down to .

Longest damage path and duration

The longest-known track for a single tornado is the Tri-State tornado, occurring on March 18, 1925, with a path length of . For years there was debate whether the originally-recognized path length of over 3.5 hours was from one tornado or a series. Some very long track (VLT) tornadoes were later determined to be successive tornadoes spawned by the same supercell thunderstorm, which are known as a tornado family. The Tri-State tornado, however, appeared to have no gaps in the damage. A six-year reanalysis study by a team of severe convective storm meteorologists found insufficient evidence to make firm conclusions but does conclude that it is likely that the beginning and ending of the path was resultant of separate tornadoes comprising a tornado family. It also found that the tornado began to the west and ended farther east than previously known, bringing the total path to . The segment from central Madison County, Missouri, to Pike County, Indiana, is likely one continuous tornado, and the segment from central Bollinger County, Missouri, to western Pike County, Indiana, is very likely a single continuous tornado. Another significant tornado was found about east-northeast of the end of aforementioned segment(s) of the Tri-State tornado family and is likely another member of the family. Its path length of over about 20 minutes makes the known tornado family path length total to over about hours. Grazulis in 2001 wrote that the first of the (originally recognized) track is probably the result of two or more tornadoes and that a path length of was seemingly continuous.

The 2021 Western Kentucky tornado on December 10, 2021 is the longest confirmed track of a tornado. This violent tornado tracked through the states of Tennessee and Kentucky during a very intense late-season outbreak. The tornado was spawned by a very long-tracked supercell that previously dropped another violent tornado in Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee, and initial media reports referred to the entire event as the "Quad-state Tornado", which would have had a path of .

On March 22, 1953, a tornado touched down near Leesville, Louisiana at 21:00 UTC; the tornado continued into far-northwest Mississippi, before dissipating north of Leland, killing two and injuring 22. The tornado was rated F2 on the Fujita scale. It traveled for , making it possibly the longest tracked tornado in history, though it is likely that the path consisted of multiple different tornadoes as part of a tornado family.

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 on May 26, 1917, from the Missouri border across Illinois into Indiana. It caused severe damage and mass casualties in Charleston and Mattoon, Illinois.

What was probably the longest track supercell thunderstorm tracked across 6 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.

Largest path width

Officially, the widest tornado on record is the El Reno, Oklahoma tornado of May 31, 2013, with a width of at its peak. This is the width found by the National Weather Service based on preliminary data from University of Oklahoma RaXPol mobile radar that also sampled winds of , which was used to upgrade the tornado to EF5. However, it was revealed that these winds did not impact any structures, and as a result the tornado was downgraded to EF3 based on damage.

The F4 Hallam, Nebraska, tornado during the outbreak of May 22, 2004, was the previous official record holder for the widest tornado, surveyed at wide. A similar size tornado struck Edmonson, Texas on May 31, 1968, when a damage path width between was recorded from an F3 tornado. Another tornado with a similar width struck Maxton and Red Springs during the March 28, 1984, Carolina Tornado Outbreak; this tornado had a width of 2.5 miles wide at one point. Rated as F4, the tornado resulted in 3 fatalities and 280 injuries. The EF4 Jiangsu tornado on June 23, 2016, also had a peak width of 4.1 km wide (2.5 miles).

On May 3, 1999, a Doppler On Wheels (DOW) mobile radar observed an F4 tornado as it crossed Mulhall during the 1999 Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak, which also produced the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado. The DOW documented the largest-ever-observed core flow circulation with a distance of between peak velocities on either side of the tornado, and a roughly width of peak wind gusts exceeding , making the Mulhall tornado the largest tornado ever measured quantitatively.

On April 21, 1946, a tornado struck the area in and around Timber Lake, South Dakota. The U.S. Weather Bureau published a paper in 1946 stating the width of this tornado was , which would make this the widest tornado ever documented in history. However, this is outside the period of reliable documentation accepted by the National Weather Service, which is 1950–present.

On May 19, 2024, a large multiple-vortex tornado tracked over rural areas near Custer City, Oklahoma. While the tornado is believed to only have been about 1 mile wide, the maximum width of its tornadic windfield and accompanying damage was nearly , making it one of the largest recorded damage paths of any tornado.

Smallest and shortest-lived damaging tornado

The smallest and shortest-lived tornado on record to produce surveyable damage was an EF1 tornado on the western side of Broken Bow, Nebraska on July 16, 2024. Spawned from an outflow-driven supercell, a very brief tornado, seen by a chaser and a surveillance camera, was recorded on the ground for only two seconds, having a listed maximum width of only and a listed path length of . Despite this, it was powerful enough to lift and throw a trailer into a nearby parked car.

Highest forward speed

The highest accepted forward speed of an intense tornado on record was from the 1974 Guin tornado that tore across northwestern Alabama. Other weak tornadoes have approached or exceeded this speed, but this is the fastest forward movement observed in a major tornado. The 1977 Birmingham tornado had an average forward speed of , as did the 2021 Western Kentucky tornado.

Weaker tornadoes and tornadovortices have been recorded exceeding these speeds. Subvortices of the 2013 El Reno tornado were recorded to travel at speeds of as they orbited the main vortex; the fastest speed a separate tornado-producing mesocyclone has been recorded to travel at was determined via photogrammetry to be the junior EF4 of the 2014 Pilger, Nebraska, tornado family, travelling at for five seconds near the very end of its lifespan. These figures have not been acknowledged by the National Weather Service.

Calculations of highest speeds from the National Centers for Environmental Information Storm Events Database gives a high average forward speed of a significant tornado just west of Galt, Iowa, on December 15, 2021, of between and . This tornado occurred during the December 2021 Midwest derecho and tornado outbreak, and was accompanied by straight-line winds approaching . A faster range can be calculated on an EF1 tornado south of Taylorville, Illinois on March 31, 2023, which traveled between 18:13 and 18:14, giving a range of forward speeds between and . Due to significant variability caused by the unspecific nature of the timestamps provided, these speed figures are unofficial.

Greatest pressure drop

A pressure deficit of was observed when a violent tornado near Manchester, South Dakota on June 24, 2003, passed directly over an in-situ probe deployed by storm chasing researcher Tim Samaras. In less than a minute, the pressure dropped to , which are the greatest pressure decline and the lowest pressure ever recorded at the Earth's surface when adjusted to sea level.

On April 21, 2007, a pressure deficit was reported when a tornado struck a storm chasing vehicle in Tulia, Texas. The tornado caused EF2 damage as it passed through Tulia. The reported pressure drop far exceeds that which would be expected based on theoretical calculations.

There is a questionable and unofficial citizen's barometer measurement of a drop around Minneapolis in 1904.

Early tornadoes

Earliest-known tornado in Europe

* The earliest recorded tornado in Europe struck Freising (Germany) in 788.
* The earliest-known Irish tornado appeared on April 30, 1054, in Rostella, near Kilbeggan. The earliest-known British tornado hit central London on October 23, 1091, and was especially destructive.

Earliest-known tornado in the Americas

* An apparent tornado is recorded to have struck Tlatelolco (present day Mexico City), on August 21, 1521, two days before the Aztec capital's fall to Cortés. Many other tornadoes are documented historically within the Basin of Mexico.

First confirmed tornado and first tornado fatality in present-day United States

* August 1671 – Rehoboth, Massachusetts
* July 8, 1680 – Cambridge, Massachusetts – 1 death

Earliest-known tornado in Asia

* An apparent tornado caused severe damage in Heian-kyō in modern-day Kyoto on 1 June 1180, which was recorded by Japanese author Kamo no Chōmei, who personally experienced the tornado.
* The earliest recorded tornado in continental Asia struck near the city of Calcutta in present-day West Bengal, India, in 1838. It was described as moving remarkably slow across its path southeast over the span of 2 to 3 hours. It was recorded to cause significant damage to the area, including hail being observed at the Dum Dum weather observatory.

First published scientific studies of a tornado

A few scientists in Europe, the US, and elsewhere documented the occurrence of tornadoes in the late 18th and early-mid 19th centuries to try to discern patterns of distribution and sometimes with inferences about formative processes and dynamics.

For intensive studies of tornadoes, these are the earliest known publications:

* 1765: German scientist Gottlob Burchard Genzmer published a detailed survey of the damage path of an extremely violent tornado which occurred near Woldegk, Germany, on 29 June 1764. It covers the entire 33 km (18.6 mi) long track and also includes eyewitness reports as well as an analysis of the debris and hail fallout areas. Genzmer calls the event an "Orcan" and only compares it to waterspouts or dust devils. Based on the damage survey, modern day meteorologists from the ESSL gave an roughly estimated rating of F5.
* 1839–41: A detailed survey of the damage path of the significant tornado that struck New Brunswick, New Jersey

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