On March 18,1925,one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in recorded history generated at least 12 significant tornadoes and spanned a large portion of the midwestern and southern United States. In all,at least 751 men,women and children were killed and more than 2,298 were injured,making the outbreak the deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history. The outbreak generated several destructive tornadoes in Missouri,Illinois,and Indiana on the same day,as well as significant tornadoes in Alabama and Kansas. In addition to confirmed tornadoes,there were undoubtedly others with lesser impacts,the occurrences of which have been lost to history.
From April 26 to 27,1991,multiple supercells across Oklahoma and Kansas led to a regional tornado outbreak. Forced by a potent trough and focused along a dryline,these distinct thunderstorms moved northeast through a moist and highly unstable environment. A total of 55 tornadoes were confirmed,many of which were strong,F2 or greater on the Fujita scale. A widely documented F5 tornado tore through Andover,Kansas,killing 17 people. Additional fatalities occurred from significant tornadoes in other portions of Kansas and Oklahoma,with 21 deaths recorded in total. An F4 tornado was detected by a mobile doppler weather radar team which observed winds up to 270 mph (430 km/h) at the top of the funnel,the first time winds of F5 intensity were measured by radar,and the highest winds recorded by radar at the time. A news team filming an F2 tornado sought shelter under a Kansas Turnpike overpass,causing a misconception that overpasses can provide adequate shelter during a tornado. This outbreak occurred within a transition period for the National Weather Service and proved the value of NEXRAD radars,which were utilized in Oklahoma to provide advanced warning to residents.
The 1996 Oakfield tornado outbreak was a severe weather event that occurred on July 18,1996,in Wisconsin,United States,primarily affecting the village of Oakfield. The outbreak produced 12 tornadoes,with the most significant being an F5 tornado which caused severe damage to the village and the surrounding areas. As of the present,this remains the most recent EF/F5 tornado to have occurred in the United States outside the peak months of April and May. No deaths were associated with the outbreak,with 17 injuries in total.
From May 19–22,1957,a tornado outbreak took place across the US Central Plains. A total of 59 tornadoes were reported from Colorado to the Mississippi Valley. The most destructive tornado of the severe weather event—likely part of a long-lived family—was rated at F5,the highest level,and is often called the Ruskin Heights tornado,after the site of its worst damage,a suburb and housing development in southern Kansas City,Missouri. Additionally,a powerful F4 tornado virtually destroyed Fremont,Missouri,claiming seven lives,and an F3 tornado killed eight others in and near Belgrade,Missouri. A pair of F4s—one in Minnesota,the other in Kansas—also neared F5 intensity. In all,59 people were killed during the outbreak,including 44 in the Ruskin Heights tornado.
A tornado family is a series of tornadoes spawned by the same supercell thunderstorm. These families form a line of successive or parallel tornado paths and can cover a short span or a vast distance. Tornado families are sometimes mistaken as a single continuous tornado,especially prior to the 1970s. Sometimes the tornado tracks can overlap and expert analysis is necessary to determine whether or not damage was created by a family or a single tornado. Oftentimes,tornadoes are small and don’t make it far before dying out. However,large tornadoes are also present in many situations that track for very long distances. To determine the average track length of a tornado,both of these factors must be taken into account. The track length of a tornado can be as short as a few feet to over 100 miles,thus making the average track length for a typical tornado about 1–2 miles. In some cases,such as the Hesston-Goessel,Kansas tornadoes of March 1990,different tornadoes of a tornado family merge,making discerning whether an event was continuous or not more difficult.
This page documents notable tornadoes and tornado outbreaks worldwide in 2008. Strong and destructive tornadoes form most frequently in the United States,Bangladesh,and Eastern India,but they can occur almost anywhere under the right conditions. Tornadoes also develop occasionally in southern Canada during the Northern Hemisphere's summer and somewhat regularly at other times of the year across Europe,Asia,and Australia. Tornadic events are often accompanied with other forms of severe weather,including strong thunderstorms,strong winds,and hail.
On on June 7–8,1984,a significant severe weather and tornado event took place across the central United States from North Dakota to Kansas. The tornado outbreak produced several significant tornadoes including an F5 tornado which traveled through Barneveld,Wisconsin,in the early hours of June 8. The entire outbreak killed at least 13 people across three states including 9 in Barneveld alone.
A satellite tornado is a tornado that revolves around a larger,primary tornado and interacts with the same mesocyclone. Satellite tornadoes occur apart from the primary tornado and are not considered subvortices;the primary tornado and satellite tornadoes are considered to be separate tornadoes. The cause of satellite tornadoes is not known. Such tornadoes are more often anticyclonic than are typical tornadoes and these pairs may be referred to as tornado couplets. Satellite tornadoes commonly occur in association with very powerful,large,and destructive tornadoes,indicative also of the strength and severity of the parent supercell thunderstorm.
A multi-day tornado outbreak affected the central plains of the United States from May 22–27,2008. It was also one of the largest continuous tornado outbreaks on record. A total of 173 tornadoes were confirmed,with the most intense activity occurring across the Great Plains. One person was killed when a large wedge tornado struck Windsor,Colorado,and two more deaths were reported in Pratt County,Kansas. One person was also killed near Hugo,Minnesota on May 25 and nine were killed by an EF5 tornado that destroyed most of Parkersburg,Iowa and a small subdivision of New Hartford,Iowa. Another fatality,caused by lightning related to the storms,occurred in central Kansas.
The March 2009 tornado outbreak sequence was a series of tornado outbreaks which affected large portions of the Central,Southern,and Eastern United States from March 23 to March 29. A total of 56 tornadoes touched down during the event,two of which were rated as EF3.
From May 3 to May 11,2003,a prolonged and destructive series of tornado outbreaks affected much of the Great Plains and Eastern United States. Most of the severe activity was concentrated between May 4 and May 10,which saw more tornadoes than any other week-long span in recorded history;335 tornadoes occurred during this period,concentrated in the Ozarks and central Mississippi River Valley. Additional tornadoes were produced by the same storm systems from May 3 to May 11,producing 363 tornadoes overall,of which 62 were significant. Six of the tornadoes were rated F4,and of these four occurred on May 4,the most prolific day of the tornado outbreak sequence;these were the outbreak's strongest tornadoes. Damage caused by the severe weather and associated flooding amounted to US$4.1 billion,making it the costliest U.S. tornado outbreak of the 2000s. A total of 50 deaths and 713 injuries were caused by the severe weather,with a majority caused by tornadoes;the deadliest tornado was an F4 that struck Madison and Henderson counties in Tennessee,killing 11. In 2023,tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis created the outbreak intensity score (OIS) as a way to rank various tornado outbreaks. The tornado outbreak sequence of May 2003 received an OIS of 232,making it the fourth worst tornado outbreak in recorded history.
The 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado was a large,long-lived and exceptionally powerful F5 tornado in which the highest wind speed ever measured globally was recorded at 321 miles per hour (517 km/h) by a Doppler on Wheels (DOW) radar. Considered the strongest tornado ever recorded to have affected the Oklahoma City metropolitan area,the tornado devastated southern portions of Oklahoma City,Oklahoma,United States while near peak intensity,along with surrounding suburbs and towns to the south and southwest of the city during the early evening of Monday,May 3,1999. Parts of Bridge Creek were rendered unrecognizable. The tornado covered 38 miles (61 km) during its 85-minute existence,destroying thousands of homes,killing 36 people,and leaving US$1 billion in damage,ranking it as the fifth-costliest on record not accounting for inflation. Its severity prompted the first-ever use of the tornado emergency statement by the National Weather Service.
From April 13 to 16,2012,a major tornado outbreak occurred across a large portion of the Great Plains. The storms resulted in six tornado-related fatalities,all of which occurred as a result of a nighttime EF3 tornado that caused major damage in and around Woodward,Oklahoma. Numerous other tornadoes occurred,including a violent EF4 tornado that passed near Marquette,Kansas,and an EF3 that caused major damage in Wichita.
A significant and destructive tornado outbreak that affected parts of the Midwestern United States and lower Great Plains in mid-May 2013. This event occurred just days after a deadly outbreak struck Texas and surrounding southern states on May 15. On May 16,a slow moving trough crossed the Rockies and traversed the western Great Plains. Initially,activity was limited to scattered severe storms;however,by May 18,the threat for organized severe thunderstorms and tornadoes greatly increased. A few tornadoes touched down that day in Kansas and Nebraska,including an EF4 tornado near Rozel,Kansas. Maintaining its slow eastward movement,the system produced another round of severe weather nearby. Activity significantly increased on May 19,with tornadoes confirmed in Oklahoma,Kansas,Iowa,Missouri,and Illinois. In Oklahoma,two strong tornadoes,one rated EF4,caused significant damage in rural areas of the eastern Oklahoma City metropolitan area;two people lost their lives near Shawnee. The most dramatic events unfolded on May 20 as a large EF5 tornado devastated parts of Moore,Oklahoma,killing 24 people. Thousands of structures were destroyed,with many being completely flattened. Several other tornadoes occurred during the day in areas further eastward,though the majority were weak and caused little damage.
The following is a glossary of tornado terms. It includes scientific as well as selected informal terminology.
The tornado outbreak of April 8–9,2015 was a relatively small but damaging outbreak of tornadoes that occurred in parts of the Great Plains and in the Midwestern United States. 27 tornadoes were confirmed during the two days,most of them weak,however a select few of them were powerful and damaging.
The tornado outbreak sequence of May 2019 was a prolonged series of destructive tornadoes and tornado outbreaks affecting the United States over the course of nearly two weeks,producing a total of 400 tornadoes,including 53 significant events (EF2+). Eighteen of these were EF3 tornadoes,spanning over multiple states,including Nebraska,Kansas,Texas,Missouri,Oklahoma,Indiana,Iowa,and Ohio,with additional tornadoes confirmed across a region extending from California to New Jersey. Two EF4 tornadoes occurred,one in Dayton,Ohio,and the other in Linwood,Kansas. Four tornadoes during this outbreak were fatal,causing a total of eight fatalities. The deadliest of these occurred on May 22 near Golden City,Missouri,where an EF3 tornado took three lives,including an elderly couple in their eighties. The damaging series of tornadoes that occurred in Indiana and Ohio on the evening of May 27 during this event is sometimes locally referred to as the Memorial Day tornado outbreak of 2019,which became the fourth costliest weather event in Ohio history. The near continuous stream of systems also produced to widespread flash and river flooding,along with damaging winds and large hail.
A deadly and destructive outbreak sequence of 23 tornadoes struck parts of the Great Plains and the Great Lakes in late-June 1957. At least seven significant tornadoes (F2+) touched down during the outbreak sequence. The most devastating storm was a large,violent,and catastrophic 500-yard-wide F5 tornado family that struck Fargo,North Dakota on Thursday,June 20,1957,killing 10 people and becoming the deadliest tornado ever recorded in North Dakota. The outbreak caused 11 fatalities,105 injuries,and $25.883 million in damage.
In the afternoon hours of April 26,1991,a large and devastating tornado moved 46 miles (74 km) through areas southeast of Wichita,located in the state of Kansas. The tornado killed seventeen,injured over two hundred others,and left an estimated $300 million of damage in its wake. The tornado was one of the most powerful to ever strike Kansas;it received the highest rating on the Fujita scale.
In the evening hours of June 17,2010,a large and powerful multi-vortex tornado moved across Freeborn County,located in the state of Minnesota. The tornado destroyed several buildings and farmsteads;one person was killed with fourteen others sustaining injuries to varying degrees. The tornado was one of four EF4-rated tornadoes to touch down on June 17,all of which occurred as part of the June 2010 Northern Plains tornado outbreak.
