Portal:Tornadoes

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The Tornadoes Portal

A tornado near Anadarko, Oklahoma, in 1999
Tornadoes are violently rotating columns of air that are in contact with the Earth and either a cumulonimbus or a cumulus cloud. Tornadoes are often referred to as twisters, whirlwinds, or cyclones. While most tornadoes attain winds of less than 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), are about 250 feet (80 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers), the wind speeds in the most intense tornadoes can reach 300 miles per hour (480 km/h), are more than two miles (3 km) in diameter, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km). Various types of tornadoes include the multiple vortex tornado, landspout, and waterspout. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirl, and steam devil. Most tornadoes occur in North America (in the United States and Canada), concentrated in a region nicknamed the Tornado Alley. Tornadoes also occur in South America, South Africa, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
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Tracks of the tornadoes in North Carolina
The November 2008 Carolinas tornado outbreak was a brief but deadly tornado outbreak which began shortly after midnight (local time), while many people were sleeping. Most of the eight tornadoes that touched down were produced by two supercell thunderstorms over North Carolina. At 12:25 a.m. EST, the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for most of eastern North Carolina as the risk of tornadoes increased. Not long after, the first tornado of the outbreak, an EF2, touched down in South Carolina. Almost an hour later, the second tornado touched down in Robeson County, North Carolina. Three other minor tornadoes, two EF0 and an EF1, touched down over the next two hours. Around 3:10 a.m. EST, the first of two killer tornadoes touched down near Kenly, North Carolina. The EF2 tornado destroyed a few homes and damaged several others. Roughly 20 minutes later, an EF3 tornado touched down in Wilson County. This tornado killed one person and injured a few others after destroying several homes. Total damages from the outbreak amounted to $2.5 million, about half of which was a result of the EF3 tornado. (Full article...)
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This is a list of confirmed tornadoes produced by the tornado outbreak sequence of May 7–11, 2008, which spawned a total of at least 120 tornadoes confirmed across the southern United States from May 7 to May 11, 2008. The event consisted of three different systems and a total of 25 people were killed.

The first tornado outbreak took place on May 7–8 affecting at first Oklahoma on May 7. Then the activity shifted across the southeast on May 8 with two separate main areas of activity. One person was killed in North Carolina. The second tornado outbreak lasted for 24 hours on May 10–11 and produced the deadliest tornado of the outbreak sequence. Twenty-one people were killed from a tornado that traveled across northeastern Oklahoma and southern Missouri. Three other people were killed including two in Georgia and one more in Missouri. (Full article...)
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An F2 tornado damaging Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on July 6, 2001.
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Tracks of all US tornadoes in 1978.
This page documents the tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1978, primarily in the United States. Most tornadoes form in the U.S., although some events may take place internationally. Tornado statistics for older years like this often appear significantly lower than modern years due to fewer reports or confirmed tornadoes. (Full article...)
List of tornadoes by year
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2024 tornado activity

EF3-rated tornado damage in Winchester, Indiana

A significant early spring tornado outbreak occurred throughout the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, with the most significant impacts occurring in Indiana and Ohio. More than two dozen tornadoes occurred, eight of them strong to intense. National Weather Service offices issued multiple 'Particularly Dangerous Situation' tornado warnings. Strong tornadoes produced major damage in the communities of Selma and Winchester in Indiana, and Fryburg and Lakeview in Ohio. One person died in Winchester, and three people were killed in Lakeview. Other significant tornadoes caused damage in Kansas, Arkansas, and Kentucky, with scattered weak tornadoes confirmed in several other states.

In addition to tornadoes, severe weather occurred across the West and East South Central U.S. Damaging winds and large hail was reported in Oklahoma, Missouri, and parts of the Deep South. Heavy rainfall and flash flooding was reported in Tennessee and Kentucky. (Full article...)
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Tornado anniversaries

May 25

  • 1896 – An F5 tornado killed 47 people as it devastated areas in and near Ortonville, Oakwood, and Thomas, Michigan. Entire families were killed, including nine people in one home in Ortonville. Trees were stripped of bark "even to the twigs" and debris was carried up to 12 miles (19 km). Other tornadoes killed 10 people across Illinois and Michigan.
  • 1955 – Part of a larger outbreak, a single supercell spawned two F5 tornadoes in succession. The first destroyed 400 homes, many of which were swept away, in Blackwell, Oklahoma, killing 20 people and injuring 280. The second, the deadliest tornado in Kansas history, destroyed the southern half of Udall, killing 80 people and injuring 270, accounting for more than half the town's population. The death toll included five children in a farmhouse near Oxford, Kansas. An F4 tornado killed two people near Cheyenne, Oklahoma.
  • 2008 – The second tornado to be rated EF5 on the new Enhanced Fujita scale tore through Parkersburg and New Hartford, Iowa, killing nine people and injuring 70. Debris from homes was granulated to the size of coins.

May 26

  • 1917 – One of the deadliest events of a larger outbreak sequence, a catastrophic tornado family moved across parts of Illinois and Indiana. It was previously cited as the longest recorded track of a single tornado at 293 miles (472 km). The deadliest member of this family, which itself may have been three or more tornadoes, killed 101 people and injured more than 600. The tornado destroyed almost every building in northern Mattoon, Illinois, where 53 people were killed, and another 38 died in the devastation of Charleston.
  • 1924 – A significant tornado outbreak resulted in 38 deaths across Mississippi and Alabama, with multiple deaths in several families. One tornado family killed nine people in Collins, Mississippi and Brewer, Mississippi, including seven in one home. An F3 tornado killed ten people near Bay Springs and Increase, Mississippi, including another 7 in one family. An brief but devastating F3 tornado killed eight people in a poorly-built home near Elkmont, Alabama, all in one family. Deadly tornadoes continued into the early morning of May 27 with another 15 deaths. Eleven of these deaths, eight of which were in one family, were from an F3 tornado that hit small communities near Empire, Alabama.

May 27

  • 1896 – An F4 tornado devastated portions of St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people, the third-highest death toll of any U.S. tornado. The deaths of some victims may not have been recorded as their bodies were washed down the Mississippi River. Other tornadoes on this day killed a total of 50 people.
  • 1997 – A slow-moving F5 tornado obliterated the Double Creek Estates subdivision in Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people. The event is notable for the extreme damage it inflicted: homes were swept away with debris reduced to small pieces, 525 ft (160 m) sections of asphalt were peeled from roads, and up to 18 in (46 cm) of soil was removed in places.
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A cumulative map of all tornadoes and tornado warnings throughout the outbreak

Accompanying Hurricane Katrina's catastrophic coastal impacts was a moderate tornado outbreak spawned by the cyclone's outer bands. The event spanned August 26–31, 2005, with 57 tornadoes touching down across 8 states. One person died and numerous communities suffered damage of varying degrees from central Mississippi to Pennsylvania, with Georgia sustaining record monetary damage for the month of August. Due to extreme devastation in coastal areas of Louisiana and Mississippi, multiple tornadoes may have been overlooked—overshadowed by the effects of storm surge and large-scale wind—and thus the full extent of the hurricane's tornado outbreak is uncertain. Furthermore, an indeterminate number of waterspouts likely formed throughout the life cycle of Hurricane Katrina.

The outbreak began with an isolated F2 over the Florida Keys on August 26; no tornadoes were recorded the following day as the storm traversed the Gulf of Mexico. Four weak tornadoes were observed on August 28 as the hurricane approached land, each causing little damage. Coincident with Katrina's landfall, activity began in earnest on August 29 with numerous tornadoes touching down across Gulf Coast states. Georgia suffered the greatest impact on this day, with multiple F1 and F2 tornadoes causing significant damage; one person died in Carroll County, marking the first known instance of a tornado-related death in the state during August. A record 18 tornadoes touched down across Georgia on August 29, far exceeding the previous daily record of just 2 tornadoes for the month throughout the state. Activity diminished over the subsequent two days as the former hurricane moved northward. Several more tornadoes touched down across the Mid-Atlantic states before the cessation of the outbreak just after midnight local time on August 31. (Full article...)

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Related WikiProjects

The scope of WikiProject Severe weather is to write articles about severe weather, namely thunderstorms and tornadoes. Their talk page is located here.

WikiProject Weather is the main hub for all articles that are weather-related. WikiProject Weather strives to improve articles in a variety of weather topics, including Tropical Cyclones, Severe Weather, General meteorology, Non-tropical Storms, Climate, Floods, Droughts and wildfires, Meteorological instruments and data, Meteorological Biographies, and Space Weather. If you would like to help, please visit the project talk page.

WikiProject Meteorology is a collaborative effort by dozens of Wikipedians to improve the quality of meteorology- and weather-related articles. If you would like to help, visit the project talk page, and see what needs doing. The project is currently being merged into WikiProject Weather.

WikiProject Tropical cyclones is a daughter project of WikiProject meteorology. The dozens of semi-active members and several full-time members focus on improving Wikipedia's coverage of tropical cyclones.

Wikipedia is a fully collaborative effort by volunteers. So if you see something you think you can improve, be bold and get to editing! We appreciate any help you can provide!

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