Tornado records

This is a list of some tornado records.

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

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]

Last tornado event to kill more than 40 people in the U.S.

Super Tuesday Outbreak of February 5, 2008 - 59 dead

Deadliest tornado of the 70s

April 10,1979 - Wichita Falls, Texas - 42 dead

Deadliest tornado of the 80s

May 22, 1987 - Saragosa, Texas - 30 dead ^[2]

Deadliest tornado of the 90s

May 3, 1999 - Bridge Creek-Midwest City, Oklahoma - 36 dead

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, though no other contenders are known) 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 damaged by actual radar wind measurements was the Mulhall (1999) tornado in northern Oklahoma which occurred during the 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.^[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.

  See also

  • Weather records
    • List of tropical cyclone extremes
  • Tornado myths
  • List of F5 and EF5 tornadoes
  • List of tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
  • List of tornado-related deaths at schools

  References

  1. ^ Schneider, Russell; H. E. Brooks and J. T. Schaefer (October 2004). "Tornado Outbreak Day Sequences: historic events and climatology (1875-2003)". Preprints of the 22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, Hyannis, MA: American Meteorological Society. 
  2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Grazulis, Thomas P. (July 1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680–1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. ISBN 1-879362-03-1. 
  3. ^ Grazulis, Tom (2000). Tornadoes in Bangladesh. Worldwide Tornadoes. The Tornado Project.
  4. ^ Brooks, Harold E.; Charles A. Doswell III (February 2001). "Normalized Damage from Major Tornadoes in the United States: 1890–1999". Weather and Forecasting 16 (1): 168–176. American Meteorological Society. 
  5. ^ Wurman, Joshua (2007). Doppler On Wheels. Center for Severe Weather Research.
  6. ^ Bluestein, Howard B.; James G. Ladue, Herbert Stein, Douglas Speheger, and Wesley F. Unruh (August 1993). "Doppler Radar Wind Spectra of Supercell Tornadoes". Monthly Weather Review 121 (8): 2200–2222. American Meteorological Society. 
  7. ^ Doswell, Charles A.; C. Crisp, R.A. Maddox, J. Hart, R.H. Johns, M.S. Gilmore, D.W. Burgess, S. Piltz. "The Tri-State Tornado of 18 March 1925 Reanalysis Project: Preliminary Results". ibid. 
  8. ^ Martinelli, Jason T. (August 2007). "A detailed analysis of an extremely long-tracked supercell". Preprints of the 33rd Conference on Radar Meteorology, Cairns, Australia: American Meteorological Society and Australian Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre. 
  9. ^ Smith, Brian E. (May 2004). Hallam Nebraska Tornado. National Weather Service.
  10. ^ Lee, Wen-Chau; Joshua Wurman (July 2005). "Diagnosed Three-Dimensional Axisymmetric Structure of the Mulhall Tornado on 3 May 1999". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 52 (7): 2373–2393. 
  11. ^ Lee, Julian J.; Timothy P. Samaras, Carl R. Young (October 2004). "Pressure Measurements at the ground in an F-4 tornado". Preprints of the 22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, Hyannis, Massachusetts: American Meteorological Society. 
  12. ^ Samaras, Tim M. (October 2004). "A historical perspective of In-Situ observations within Tornado Cores". Preprints of the 22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, Hyannis, MA: American Meteorological Society. 
  13. ^ Mo. Teen Survives Tornado, Confronts Media Storm. USAToday.
  14. ^ Amazing Journey. illustration.
  15. ^ Tornado Climatology. A SEVERE WEATHER PRIMER: Questions and Answers about TORNADOES.

  
  

  External links

  • More on tornadoes: Records, the Fujita scale, and our observations by Chuck Doswell
  • CBC Digital Archives - Deadly Skies: Canada's Most Destructive Tornadoes