The following is a list of weather events that occurred on Earth in the year 1946. There were several natural disasters around the world from various types of weather, including blizzards, cold waves, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, floods, tornadoes, and tropical cyclones.
| Rank | Event | Date(s) | Deaths (+Missing) | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | November Andhra coast cyclone | November ?? | 750 | [1] |
| 2 | Typhoon Querida | September 18–27 | 154 | [2] |
| 3 | Tornado outbreak of January 4–6 | January 4–6 | 47 | [3] |
| 4 | Windsor–Tecumseh tornado | June 17 | 17 | [3] |
| 5 | Mankato–North Mankato, Minnesota tornado | August 17 | 11 | [3] |
| 6 | 1946 Florida hurricane | October 5–14 | 5 | [4] |
| 7 | Tornado outbreak of May 23–24 | May 23–24 | 4 | [3] |
| 8 | ||||
| 9 | ||||
| 10 | ||||
The following listed different types of special weather conditions worldwide.
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This is a timeline of weather events during 1946.
On April 5–6, 1936, an outbreak of 14 tornadoes struck the Southeastern United States, killing at least 454 people and injuring at least 2,500 others. Over 200 people died in Georgia alone, making it the deadliest disaster ever recorded in the state.
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 219 miles (352 km), longest duration at about 3+1⁄2 hours, and it held the fastest forward speed for a significant tornado at 73 mph (117 km/h) anywhere on Earth until 2021. In addition, it is the deadliest single tornado in United States history with 695 fatalities. It was also the third most costly tornado in history at the time, when costs are normalized for wealth and inflation, it still ranks third today.
Tornadoes have been recorded on all continents except Antarctica. They are most common in the middle latitudes where conditions are often favorable for convective storm development. The United States has the most tornadoes of any country, as well as the strongest and most violent tornadoes. A large portion of these tornadoes form in an area of the central United States popularly known as Tornado Alley. Canada experiences the second most tornadoes. Ontario and the prairie provinces see the highest frequency. Other areas of the world that have frequent tornadoes include significant portions of Europe, South Africa, Philippines, Bangladesh, parts of Argentina, Uruguay, and southern and southeastern Brazil, northern Mexico, eastern and western Australia, New Zealand, and far eastern Asia.
On March 28, 1920, a large outbreak of at least 37 tornadoes, 31 of which were significant, took place across the Midwestern and Southern United States. The tornadoes left at least 153 dead and at least 1,215 injured. Many communities and farmers alike were caught off-guard as the storms moved to the northeast at speeds that reached over 60 mph (97 km/h). Most of the fatalities occurred in Georgia (37), Ohio (28), and Indiana (21), while the other states had lesser totals. Little is known about many of the specific tornadoes that occurred, and the list below is only partial.
On April 23–25, 1908, a destructive tornado outbreak affected portions of the Midwestern and Southern United States, including the Great Plains. The outbreak produced at least 31 tornadoes in 13 states, with a total of at least 324 tornado-related deaths. Of these deaths, most were caused by three long-tracked, violent tornadoes—each rated F4 on the Fujita scale and considered to be a tornado family—that occurred on April 24. Most of the deaths were in rural areas, often consisted of African Americans, and consequently may have been undercounted. One of the tornadoes killed 143 people along its path, 73 of them in the U.S. state of Mississippi, making the tornado the third deadliest in Mississippi history, following the 1936 Tupelo F5, with 216 deaths, and the 1840 Natchez tornado, with 317 deaths.
On August 28, 1884, a tornado outbreak, including a family of least five strong tornadoes, affected portions of the Dakota Territory within present-day South Dakota. Among them was one of the first known tornadoes to have been photographed, an estimated F4 on the Fujita scale, that occurred near Howard and exhibited multiple vortices. Another violent tornado also occurred near Alexandria, and three other tornadoes were also reported. A sixth tornado also occurred in present-day Davison County. In all, the tornadoes killed at least seven people and injured at least two others. Contemporary records and survivors' recollections indicate that the storms were F3 or F4 intensity on the Fujita scale, but cannot currently be officially verified, as official records begin in 1950.
On March 21–22, 1932, a deadly tornado outbreak struck the Midwestern and Southern United States. At least 38 tornadoes—including 27 deadly tornadoes and several long-lived tornado families—struck the Deep South, killing more than 330 people and injuring 2,141. Tornadoes affected areas from Mississippi north to Illinois and east to South Carolina, but Alabama was hardest hit, with 268 fatalities; the outbreak is considered to be the deadliest ever in Alabama, and among the worst ever in the United States, trailing only the Tri-State tornado outbreak in 1925, with 751 fatalities, and the Tupelo–Gainesville outbreak in 1936, with 454 fatalities. The 1932 outbreak is believed to have produced 10 violent tornadoes, eight of which occurred in Alabama alone.
A deadly tornado outbreak affected much of the central and Southern United States from April 29 – May 1, 1909. Affecting particularly the Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys, it killed over 180 people, more than 90 of them in the U.S. state of Tennessee alone. The deadliest and longest-tracked tornado of the outbreak was a violent F4 tornado family that tracked across portions of northern Mississippi and western Tennessee on April 29, claiming at least 29 lives. Another deadly F4 tornado struck portions of southern Tennessee early the next day, killing 31. Other F4s in southern Missouri and southern Illinois on April 29 killed a combined 16 people. Deadly F3s in Georgia and Tennessee from April 30–May 1 killed a total of at least 53 people as well.
On April 29–30, 1924, an outbreak of at least 28 tornadoes—26 of which were significant, meaning F2 or stronger—affected the Southern United States. The tornadoes left 114 dead and at least 1,166 injured, mostly in the Carolinas, with 76 deaths in South Carolina alone, along with 16 in Georgia and 13 in Alabama. Killer tornadoes touched down from Oklahoma and Arkansas to Virginia. The deadliest tornado of the outbreak was a long-lived tornado family that produced F4 damage in rural portions of South Carolina, killing 53 people and injuring at least 534. The tornado is the deadliest ever recorded in South Carolina and is one of the longest-tracked observed in the state, having traveled 105 miles (169 km); some sources list a total path length of 135 mi (217 km), including the segment in Florence County, but this is now believed to have been a separate, F3 tornado.
The Teton–Yellowstone tornado was a rare high-altitude tornado which occurred on July 21, 1987, in the U.S. state of Wyoming. Rated at F4 on the Fujita scale, it remains the strongest tornado ever recorded in the state and the only recorded F4/EF4 tornado in Wyoming history. The tornado cut through a 24.4-mile (39.2 km)-long and 1.6-mile (2.5 km)-wide swath of the Teton Wilderness and Yellowstone National Park, crossing the Continental Divide. Damage occurred at elevations ranging from 8,500 to 10,000 feet, making it the highest-altitude violent tornado recorded in the United States. At the time, it was the highest-elevation tornado known, since surpassed by several others, including a 2004 tornado above 12,000 feet (3,700 m) in California's Sequoia National Park. While no human fatalities or injuries occurred, an estimated one million trees were felled by the tornado. The tornado damage was originally thought to be the result of strong thunderstorm straight-line winds until the area was surveyed by University of Chicago severe weather meteorologist Ted Fujita and his colleagues, who published a paper in 1989 surveying the tornado's path and discussing its meteorological character.
The 1942–48 Pacific hurricane seasons all began during late spring in the northeast Pacific Ocean and the central Pacific. They ended in late fall.
On April 19–21, 1920, a multi-day severe weather event affected the Southeastern United States. The most intense portion of the outbreak occurred on the morning of April 20. At least seven tornadoes affected the American U.S. states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, six of them rated violent F4s on the Fujita scale. The tornado outbreak killed at least 243 people.
Woodville is an unincorporated community in Liberty Township, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana.
On Thursday, September 29, 1927, an outbreak of at least 15 significant tornadoes, including three F3 tornadoes, killed at least 82 people in the Central United States, particularly in Missouri and Illinois. The outbreak affected a broad expanse of the Midwestern and Southern United States, including Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. The deadliest tornado was an estimated F3 which affected portions of Greater St. Louis, killing at least 79 people and injuring at least 550 others. The tornado narrowly missed Downtown St. Louis, striking north of the central business district before crossing the Mississippi River.
This page documents the tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1946, primarily in the United States. Most recorded 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.
On May 23–24, 1946, a tornado outbreak occurred across the Central and Midwestern United States. Over two days at least 15 significant tornadoes struck parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma, killing four people and injuring 42 others. The storm system also caused numerous other impacts including hail, heavy rains, and damaging lightning strikes.
On January 4–6, 1946, a small but violent tornado outbreak struck the South-Central United States, killing 47 people and injuring at least 412 others. L. H. Seamon with the US Weather Bureau, the predecessor of the National Weather Service, later stated it was the "most disastrous" tornado event of the year; the US Weather Bureau stated in 1960 that January 4, 1946 had "outstanding tornadoes".
The history of tornado research spans back centuries, with the earliest documented tornado occurring in 200 and academic studies on them starting in the 18th century. This is a timeline of government or academic research into tornadoes.
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