Portal:Tornadoes
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The Tornadoes Portal
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This page documents all tornadoes confirmed by various weather forecast offices of the National Weather Service in the United States from January to February 2013. Based on the 1991–2010 average, 35 tornadoes touch down in January and 29 touch down in February. These tornadoes are commonly focused across the Southern United States due to their proximity to the unstable airmass and warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as California in association with winter storms.
Most of January was quiet, but a large outbreak at the end of the month pushed it well above average with 76 confirmed tornadoes. Small-to-moderate sized outbreaks also occurred in February, causing it to also be above average with 40 tornadoes. A violent EF4 tornado struck Hattiesburg, Mississippi during the month as well. (Full article...)Selected image -
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2024 tornado activity
A significant early spring tornado outbreak occurred throughout the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, with the most significant impacts occuring 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...)Tornado anniversaries
May 10
- 1907 – An F5 tornado destroyed much of Snyder, Oklahoma with many homes completely swept away, killing 97 people, including 10 on farms outside of town. Residents did not take shelter because they mistook the approaching tornado for a hail storm.
- 1933 – An F4 tornado, forming just after midnight, destroyed every home in Beatty Swamps near Livingston, Tennessee, with much of the community swept clean, killing 35 people. Nearly everyone in town was killed or injured.
- 2008 – A long-track EF4 tornado killed 21 people and injured 350 as it traveled 75 miles (121 km) across northeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Missouri. Eight people were killed and 150 were injured in Picher, Oklahoma, where about 200 homes were destroyed. Following the tornado and problems created by nearby mines, Picher was abandoned. Another 14 died in Jasper County, Missouri, most of them in cars and mobile homes near Racine.
May 11
- 1953 – An F5 tornado, obscured by heavy rain, leveled a potion of Waco, Texas and killed 114 people, including 30 in a six-story building that collapsed in downtown Waco. This was one of the first tornadoes to be matched with a hook echo by weather radar, but no warning was communicated to residents.
- 1970 – An F5 tornado killed 26 people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes and apartment units in Lubbock, Texas. Ted Fujita led a detailed study of the damage from this tornado, using it to develop the levels of the Fujita scale and improve the understanding of multiple vortex tornadoes.
May 12
- 1951 – A tornado killed an estimated 200 people in the Faridpur District of Bangladesh.
- 1956 – An F4 tornado moved through the southern edge of Flint, Michigan, killing three people and injuring 116. A minimal F4 tornado moved through Allen Park and Lincoln Park, Michigan, resulting in 22 injuries but no fatalities.
- 1997 – A highly visible F1 tornado moved through downtown Miami, Florida, injuring 12 people. Although no major damage occurred, images of the tornado gained widespread media attention.
Did you know…
- ...that the 2013 Moore tornado that struck Moore and Newcastle, Oklahoma, is the most recent EF5 tornado?
- ...that the 2021 South Moravia tornado, an IF4 tornado with winds between 207–260 mph (333–418 km/h), was the strongest tornado to hit the Czech Republic in modern history?
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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...)List of Featured articles and lists
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The scope of WikiProject Severe weather is to write articles about severe weather, namely thunderstorms and tornadoes. Their talk page is located here.
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