95 Fun Facts About Tornadoes

What is the most common name for the region in the central United States known for frequent tornadoes?

Tornado Alley is the nickname for the central Plains from Texas to the Dakotas, where dry air off the Rockies meets Gulf moisture beneath strong upper-level winds.

What scale is primarily used to rate the intensity of tornadoes in the United States and Canada?

The Enhanced Fujita scale rates a tornado from the damage it leaves behind, matched against 28 damage indicators, rather than from any measured wind speed.

What is the rotating updraft in a supercell that often precedes a tornado called?

A mesocyclone is a rotating column of air a few miles wide inside a supercell, and spotting one on radar is a key sign a tornado may follow.

What type of cloud is most commonly associated with tornado formation?

Weaker tornadoes can hang from an ordinary cumulus, but the violent ones come from towering thunderstorm clouds.

Which U.S. state experiences the most tornadoes annually on average?

Texas averages well over 100 tornadoes a year, the most of any state, largely because of its sheer size; Kansas is a distant second.

Tornado ground movement ranges from almost stationary up to more than how many miles per hour?

60 mph is the top of the quoted range, though forecasters admit there are no detailed statistics on forward speed; the winds inside can top 300 mph.

A widespread event of multiple tornadoes occurring over a short period across a large region is known as a what?

A tornado outbreak is many tornadoes spawned by the same weather system, often across several states over a period of hours or days.

On February 1 of which year did the US National Weather Service adopt the EF damage scale?

The Enhanced Fujita scale took effect on February 1, 2007, rating damage against 28 indicators such as building type; tornadoes rated before that date kept their old Fujita ratings.

Besides the wind itself, what do forecasters call the biggest threat to life in a tornado?

Flying debris is the biggest threat to anything alive: winds that strong put cars in the air and turn broken glass into lethal missiles.

Which of the following terms describes a tornado that forms over water?

A waterspout counts as a tornado by definition, but it is left out of official U.S. tornado statistics unless it comes ashore.

Which radar signature, formed as precipitation wraps a supercell's rotating updraft, warns a tornado may be forming?

The hook echo is drawn when the rear-flank downdraft drags rain around the updraft base, curling the tell-tale shape on the radar display.

Viewed from above, which direction do most tornadoes in the Northern Hemisphere rotate?

Counter-clockwise, like the hurricanes above them, with anticyclonic exceptions that are usually weak waterspouts or landspouts.

What do storm chasers call a non-supercell tornado whose spin starts near the ground and is stretched up by an updraft?

Landspout was coined for its resemblance to a weak Florida Keys waterspout over land; most are small and short-lived.

What does an approaching tornado most commonly sound like?

A continuous rumble like a train is the classic description; some produce a whoosh like a waterfall, and many are audible only up close, so sound is no warning.

What does a 'Tornado Warning' mean?

One has been spotted or shown on radar when a warning goes out; a watch is the weaker product, meaning tornadoes are possible over the next several hours.

Which storm holds the U.S. record for the longest continuous tornado track, 219 miles?

The Tri-State, 1925 tornado stayed on the ground for 219 miles across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana on March 18, 1925, the deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.

What is the broad, abrupt lowering of a cloud base from which tornadoes sometimes form called?

A wall cloud marks the strongest updraft beneath a cumulonimbus, the part of the storm where a tornado may spin up.

Approximately how many tornadoes occur in the United States annually on average?

The United States records 1,000-1,200 tornadoes in a typical year, far more than any other country; Canada is a distant second.

What is a short-lived swirling wind on a thunderstorm's outflow edge, not a true tornado, called?

A gustnado almost never connects the surface to the cloud base, which is why it is almost never counted as a tornado.

How long does a typical supercell thunderstorm last?

A typical supercell lasts 2-4 hours, far longer than the 30-60 minutes of an ordinary thunderstorm, because its tilted, rotating updraft stays clear of its own rain-cooled downdraft.

The word 'tornado' traces back to a Spanish word meaning what?

Tornado comes from Spanish tronada, 'thunderstorm', from tronar, 'to thunder'; the r and o later swapped places under the influence of tornar, 'to turn'.

Which country suffers the most tornado deaths per year, an average of about 179?

Bangladesh averages about 179 tornado deaths a year, the most of any country, because dense population and flimsy housing lie in the path of violent pre-monsoon storms.

The 1989 Daulatpur–Saturia tornado, the deadliest ever recorded, killed roughly how many?

World Meteorological Organization figures also put the injured at about 12,000 after the tornado swept through Manikganj District on April 26, 1989.

Roughly what share of Northern Hemisphere tornadoes spin clockwise, the 'wrong' way?

About 1% of Northern Hemisphere tornadoes are anticyclonic, spinning clockwise; most are weak landspouts, gustnadoes or small satellite tornadoes beside a large cyclonic twister.

The widest tornado ever measured, 2.6 miles across, struck near which Oklahoma town in 2013?

The May 31, 2013 El Reno tornado was measured at 2.6 miles wide by mobile radar, beating the previous 2.5-mile record from 2004; it was rain-wrapped and multi-vortex.

Which storm chaser, famed for in-situ pressure probes, died in a 2013 Oklahoma tornado?

Tim Samaras, whose TWISTEX team placed pressure probes in tornado paths, died with his son Paul and partner Carl Young in a 2.6-mile-wide Oklahoma tornado on May 31, 2013.

A 2003 probe near Manchester, South Dakota, logged a record tornado pressure drop of how many hPa?

The drop happened in under a minute and is in Guinness World Records; the 850 hPa reading is the lowest surface pressure ever measured.

Mobile radar logged the fastest tornado wind ever, about 302 mph, during which 1999 tornado?

The May 3, 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore, Oklahoma tornado produced a Doppler on Wheels wind reading of about 302 mph; a 2021 reanalysis of the data nudged it up to roughly 321 mph.

An NWS 'tornado emergency' is an enhanced version of which alert?

A tornado emergency is an upgraded tornado warning for a confirmed violent tornado bearing down on a populated area; the first was issued for south Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999.

In 1971, Ted Fujita introduced his tornado damage scale while a professor where?

Fujita introduced the scale in 1971 at the University of Chicago, where he spent his career; Allen Pearson of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center added path length and width, hence Fujita-Pearson scale.

Besides his scale, Ted Fujita discovered which aircraft-threatening wind phenomenon?

Fujita identified downbursts in 1975 while investigating Eastern Air Lines Flight 66's crash at JFK; his survey of starburst damage patterns at Hiroshima and Nagasaki helped him picture wind slamming into the ground.

Fujita's original theoretical scale ran to F12, a level that corresponds to what?

Fujita's 13-step scale ran from F0 to F12, with F12 set at Mach 1, the speed of sound, so it bridged the Beaufort scale, whose force 12 matches F1, and the Mach scale.

Which country adopted the Enhanced Fujita scale on April 1, 2013?

Canada adopted a modified Enhanced Fujita scale on April 1, 2013, with damage indicators tuned to Canadian building practice; Japan followed with its own JEF scale in 2016.

The Enhanced Fujita scale was developed from 2000 to 2004 at which school's wind engineering center?

Texas Tech's Wind Science and Engineering Center in Lubbock ran the Fujita Scale Enhancement Project from 2000 to 2004, with dozens of meteorologists and civil engineers refining the damage indicators.

Under the Enhanced Fujita scale, an EF5 rating begins at estimated winds above what speed?

The old F5 band started at 261 mph; engineers found 200 mph winds were enough to cause the same damage.

The first tornado ever rated EF5 struck which Kansas town on May 4, 2007?

Greensburg, Kansas was hit on May 4, 2007 by the first tornado rated EF5 on the new scale; about 1.7 miles wide, it levelled roughly 95% of the town.

The Kansas town 95% destroyed by a 2007 EF5 is home to what record-holding landmark?

The 109-foot Big Well survived the storm, though its water tower and gift shop did not; it has been a tourist attraction since 1937.

Which month averages the most tornadoes in the United States?

May averages the most U.S. tornadoes, roughly 275 a year, as Gulf moisture, a strong jet stream and lingering cold fronts overlap across the Plains; June is second.

Which Illinois city lost 234 people to the Tri-State tornado, the most of any single US city?

Murphysboro, a coal and railroad town of about 10,000, lost 234 people as the mile-wide tornado tore through at roughly 60 mph, the highest single-city toll of any U.S. tornado.

The deadliest tornado in Oklahoma history struck Woodward in which year?

The Woodward tornado of April 9, 1947 ran about 100 miles from the Texas Panhandle into Oklahoma, killing 181 people, 107 of them in Woodward, the deadliest tornado in Oklahoma history.

An 1896 tornado killed at least 255 people in about 20 minutes in which city?

The St. Louis tornado of May 27, 1896 killed at least 255 people, crossed the Mississippi into East St. Louis, and ranks as the third-deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

The 1899 New Richmond, Wisconsin, tornado hit a town packed with visitors for what event?

The Gollmar Brothers Circus had drawn hundreds to a town of about 2,000; 117 people died, Wisconsin's worst tornado toll.

Which future music star survived the deadly 1936 Tupelo tornado as a one-year-old?

Elvis Presley, born in Tupelo in January 1935, was 15 months old when the April 5, 1936 tornado killed 216 people there; the Gainesville, Georgia tornado struck the next day.

How many people died when an F5 tornado tore through downtown Waco, Texas, in May 1953?

The Waco tornado of May 11, 1953 killed 114 people, many crushed in collapsed downtown buildings, tying the 1902 Goliad tornado as the deadliest in Texas history.

The 1953 Worcester tornado, which killed 94, is the deadliest on record in which US region?

The June 9, 1953 Worcester tornado killed 94 people along a 48-mile path across Massachusetts and injured nearly 1,300, the deadliest tornado ever recorded in New England.

The 1953 Flint–Beecher F5 that killed 116 people struck which state?

The Flint-Beecher tornado of June 8, 1953 killed 116 people in Michigan's Genesee County, the last U.S. tornado to kill more than 100 until a Missouri storm 58 years later in 2011.

The costliest single US tornado, at $2.8 billion, hit which Missouri city on May 22, 2011?

The Joplin EF5 of May 22, 2011 killed 158 people and wrecked St. John's Regional Medical Center, one of the city's two hospitals; insured losses alone topped $2 billion.

The 2011 Super Outbreak's deadliest tornado, Hackleburg–Phil Campbell, struck which state?

It killed 71 people, the most by any US tornado since Udall, Kansas, in 1955, until the Missouri EF5 a month later.

Which Ohio city was flattened by an F5 in the 1974 Super Outbreak, with 32 killed?

Xenia, Ohio lost 32 people on April 3, 1974 when an F5 from the Super Outbreak destroyed about half the town, including several schools and much of its downtown.

The 1974 Brandenburg tornado is the only officially documented F5 in which state?

Brandenburg, Kentucky was hit on April 3, 1974 during the Super Outbreak by an F5 that killed 31 people, the only tornado officially rated F5 in the state.

Seven children died when a wall collapsed at which school in the 2013 Moore, Oklahoma tornado?

Briarwood Elementary was also destroyed, but everyone there survived; most of the 24 deaths were in the Plaza Towers neighborhood.

The 1997 Jarrell, Texas F5 was infamous for what unusual behavior?

The May 27, 1997 Jarrell F5 was crawling forward very slowly, about 5-10 mph, so Double Creek Estates endured extreme winds for about three minutes and homes were scoured down to bare slabs.

The 1990 Plainfield, Illinois F5 is the only US tornado of that rating in which month?

The Plainfield tornado struck on August 28, 1990 with no tornado warning in effect, killing 29; it is the only F5 on record in August and the only one to hit the Chicago area.

April 10, 1979, the day a tornado killed at least 45 in Wichita Falls, Texas, became known as what?

'Terrible Tuesday' is what Wichita Falls calls April 10, 1979, when an F4 tornado over a mile wide killed more than 40 people, many of them in cars fleeing the storm.

The 2007 Elie tornado, the last ever rated F5 on the original scale, hit which Canadian province?

Video showed a well-built house lifted whole into the air and disintegrating, which earned the upgrade from F4.

Edmonton's 'Black Friday' tornado, which killed 27, struck in which year?

The Edmonton tornado struck on Friday, July 31, 1987, killing 27 people and injuring hundreds; Alberta's Emergency Public Warning System was created in response.

The June 2014 Pilger event on the Great Plains was famous for what rare sight?

On June 16, 2014 Pilger, Nebraska saw two violent tornadoes at once, twin EF4s running side by side; the western one devastated the town before being absorbed by yet another tornado from the same supercell.

The December 10, 2021 'Quad-State' tornado flattened a candle factory in which town?

Mayfield, Kentucky's candle factory collapsed with workers inside when the EF4 Quad-State tornado of December 10, 2021 crossed the town; the tornado tracked 165.6 miles and killed 57 people.

On March 3, 2020, an EF3 tornado tore through the downtown of which Tennessee city?

The Nashville tornado of March 3, 2020 crossed the north edge of downtown and East Nashville after midnight as an EF3; the same supercell spawned an EF4 at Cookeville, and 25 people died across Middle Tennessee.

The March 24, 2023 EF4 that devastated Rolling Fork struck which state?

Rolling Fork, Mississippi was devastated on the night of March 24, 2023 by a long-tracked EF4 wedge with winds estimated near 195 mph; Silver City and Midnight were hit as well.

An EF4 tornado struck which Ohio city on the night of Memorial Day, 2019?

The Dayton EF4 of May 27, 2019 ran 18 miles through Brookville, Trotwood and northern Dayton, injuring 166 people, Ohio's first EF4 since Millbury in 2010.

The nickname for the tornado-prone central US first appeared in 1952 as the title of what?

Tornado Alley was the title of a 1952 Air Force weather research project run by Ernest Fawbush and Robert Miller, the officers who had made the first tornado forecast in 1948.

Compared with Plains tornadoes, significant 'Dixie Alley' tornadoes are more likely to strike when?

Dixie Alley tornadoes are far more likely to strike at night: they come earlier in the year, when days are short, and Gulf moisture keeps the air unstable long after sunset.

The Storm Prediction Center is headquartered in which Oklahoma city?

The Storm Prediction Center sits in Norman, sharing the National Weather Center on the University of Oklahoma campus with the National Severe Storms Laboratory since the building opened in 2006.

Before October 2007, how did the NWS define the area covered by a tornado alert?

Until October 1, 2007 warnings were issued by county; since then they are drawn as polygons along the storm's projected path, cutting the area needlessly alerted.

The first successful tornado forecast, in March 1948, was made at which Oklahoma air base?

At Tinker Air Force Base, Fawbush and Miller issued the first tornado forecast on March 25, 1948, five days after a tornado struck the base; a second hit that evening as predicted.

Until 1938, the US Weather Bureau banned its staff from doing what?

Officials feared panic; the FCC kept barring broadcasters from airing tornado alerts even after the Bureau relented.

Upward of 400 waterspouts a year are observed around which island chain?

The Florida Keys see upward of 400 waterspouts a year, more than anywhere else; most are weak fair-weather spouts that form under lines of cumulus rather than from rotating supercells.

A fair-weather waterspout's five-stage life cycle begins with what sign on the water?

The cycle starts with a dark spot on the water, followed by a spiral pattern, a spray ring, the mature visible funnel and finally decay, usually all within 20 minutes.

A fire whirl killed some 38,000 people in 15 minutes after which 1923 disaster?

The Great Kantō earthquake of September 1, 1923 set Tokyo ablaze, and a fire whirl swept the former Army Clothing Depot site at Hifukusho-ato, where some 38,000 people had gathered, killing nearly all of them.

A fire tornado spawned by the 2018 Carr Fire struck which California city?

The Carr Fire vortex of July 26, 2018 tore into the west side of Redding with winds rated EF3, about 143 mph, and pushed fire-generated tornadoes into wider public awareness.

In Australia, a dust devil is commonly known by what name?

A willy willy is the Australian name for a dust devil, which grows up from hot ground under clear skies rather than down from a thunderstorm.

For over a century, which corner of a house was wrongly said to be the safest in a tornado?

The southwest corner was long recommended on the theory that tornadoes come from the southwest and would toss debris northeast; the advice survived into the 1990s, but interior rooms on the lowest floor are the real refuge.

Opening a house's windows before a tornado was wrongly believed to do what?

People believed opening windows would equalize air pressure and keep the house from 'exploding'; in fact flying debris breaks windows anyway, and opening them just wastes shelter time.

The 1979 instrument barrel TOTO inspired which device in the film Twister?

The real barrel weighed up to 350 pounds and was rolled out of a pickup in about 30 seconds, but it never took a direct hit.

Who directed the 1996 blockbuster Twister?

Jan de Bont directed Twister, released May 10, 1996, fresh off Speed; he took the job after leaving TriStar's Godzilla in a budget dispute, with Steven Spielberg executive producing.

Which best-selling novelist co-wrote Twister's screenplay with his wife?

Michael Crichton and his then wife, actress Anne-Marie Martin, wrote the Twister screenplay and were paid a reported $2.5 million for it.

Twister is notable as one of the first films released in the US on which home format?

Twister was among the very first titles released on DVD in the United States, arriving on March 25, 1997, the month the format launched there.

The armored Tornado Intercept Vehicle, built to film inside tornadoes in IMAX, was designed by whom?

Sean Casey built the Tornado Intercept Vehicle for his IMAX film Tornado Alley; TIV 2 got the shot he needed near La Grange, Wyoming on June 5, 2009, and both vehicles featured on Discovery's Storm Chasers.

Storm chaser Reed Timmer's armored chase vehicles carry what name?

Reed Timmer's Dominator vehicles are armored SUVs with hydraulic skirts that pin them to the ground; Dominator 1, a modified Chevy Tahoe, drove into a Wyoming tornado in June 2009.

The first Doppler on Wheels mobile radar was completed in 1995 at which school?

The first Doppler on Wheels was built at the University of Oklahoma in about five months in 1995, a truck-mounted radar that was soon scanning hurricanes as well as tornadoes.

Which atmospheric scientist invented the Doppler on Wheels mobile radar in 1995?

Joshua Wurman built the first Doppler on Wheels in 1995 and later ran the radar fleet from the nonprofit Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder, which he founded in 1998.

The original VORTEX tornado field project ran in which two years?

VORTEX ran in the springs of 1994 and 1995 across the southern Plains; VORTEX2 followed in 2009-10 with a far bigger fleet, aiming to stretch warning lead times well beyond 13 minutes.

Who coined the term 'landspout' in 1985 for a tornado with no parent mesocyclone?

Howard Bluestein, a University of Oklahoma meteorologist, coined 'landspout' in 1985 after noting such tornadoes resembled waterspouts over land; he also led early TOTO deployments in the 1980s.

The small whirls that revolve inside a large multiple-vortex tornado are called what?

Suction vortices, a term Fujita coined, can add over 100 mph to the wind and explain why one house is obliterated while its neighbor barely loses shingles.

The first storm ever identified as a supercell, in 1959, was over which country?

Keith Browning and Frank Ludlam analysed the July 9, 1959 Wokingham hailstorm in England, and Browning's 1962 paper on it gave the world the supercell concept.

The dry, sinking air wrapping around a tornado can carve what visible feature into the cloud base?

The clear slot is carved by the rear flank downdraft warming and drying as it descends; chasers watch for the horseshoe-shaped gap as a sign a tornado may form.

Tornadoes have been reported in how many of the 50 US states?

All 50 states have recorded tornadoes, including Alaska and Hawaii, though the Plains and the South see the vast majority.

In 2006, Missouri teen Matt Suter survived being carried a record how far by a tornado?

Matt Suter was carried 1,307 feet, just 13 feet shy of a quarter mile, on March 12, 2006 near Fordland, Missouri, and survived with a head wound; the National Weather Service measured the distance.

Evidence suggests most tornadoes have a calm, very low-pressure core similar to what?

Like the eye of a hurricane, a tornado's core is calm and very low pressure; Doppler on Wheels images and eyewitnesses describe a clear center, sometimes lit from within by lightning.

Britain's TORRO tornado scale was proposed by Terence Meaden as an extension of which scale?

The TORRO scale extends the Beaufort scale: T0 equals Beaufort force 8 and the T-scale runs up to T11; Meaden presented it at the Royal Meteorological Society in 1975.

The costliest tornado ever recorded in Great Britain struck which city on 28 July 2005?

The Birmingham tornado of 28 July 2005 tore through Sparkbrook, Balsall Heath and Moseley, injuring 19 people and causing about £40 million of damage, the costliest tornado recorded in Britain.

The 35-foot tornado in The Wizard of Oz (1939) was built from what material?

Effects chief Arnold Gillespie built the twister as a 35-foot muslin sock hung from a steel gantry after a rubber cone proved too stiff, with dust blown in to look like a funnel.

The deadly 1936 Gainesville, Georgia tornado was unusual for striking at what time of day?

The Gainesville tornado struck at about 8:30 a.m. on April 6, 1936, as people started work, killing 203, a rare morning strike for one of the deadliest tornadoes on record.

A tornado that looks wider than it is tall is nicknamed what?

A wedge is a tornado that looks wider than it is tall; from a distance even experienced chasers can mistake one for a low-hanging cloud, and many violent tornadoes take this form.