Portal:Tornadoes

The Tornadoes Portal

A tornado near Anadarko, Oklahoma, in 1999

Tornadoes are violently rotating columns of air that are in contact with the Earth and either a cumulonimbus or a cumulus cloud. Tornadoes are often referred to as twisters, whirlwinds, or cyclones. While most tornadoes attain winds of less than 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), are about 250 feet (80 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers), the wind speeds in the most intense tornadoes can reach 300 miles per hour (480 km/h), are more than two miles (3 km) in diameter, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km). Various types of tornadoes include the multiple vortex tornado, landspout, and waterspout. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirl, and steam devil. Most tornadoes occur in North America (in the United States and Canada), concentrated in a region nicknamed the Tornado Alley. Tornadoes also occur in South America, South Africa, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

Selected tornado article -

The storm system responsible for the tornado outbreak at 6:10 p.m. CDT May 31

A prolonged and widespread tornado outbreak sequence affected a large portion of the United States in late-May 2013 and early-June 2013. The outbreak was the result of a slow-moving but powerful storm system that produced several strong tornadoes across the Great Plains states, especially in Kansas and Oklahoma. Other strong tornadoes caused severe damage in Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan. The outbreak extended as far east as Upstate New York. 27 fatalities were reported in total, with nine resulting from tornadoes (eight in Oklahoma and one in Arkansas).

By far the most significant tornado of the outbreak was an extremely large EF3 tornado that struck areas near the town of El Reno, Oklahoma on May 31. With a maximum width of 2.6 miles (4.2 km), it was the largest tornado on record. The highest wind speeds recorded on Earth, up to 340 miles per hour (550 km/h), were also observed in this tornado. The twister was responsible for eight deaths, including famous storm chaser Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and Carl Young as a result of being caught off-guard by the tornado's unprecedented width. In addition, the tornado caused 151 injures. (Full article...)

Selected tornado list -

This is a list of all tornadoes that were confirmed by local offices of the National Weather Service in the United States in May 2010. (Full article...)

Selected image -

An F4 tornado that occurred near Howard, South Dakota, on August 28, 1884. This was one of the first photographs taken of a tornado according the Early Tornado Photographs article by John T. Snow in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Selected tornado year -

Tornado tracks of 1959.

Tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1959 were tornadoes that appeared primarily in the United States in that year. Most 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. (Full article...)

Related portals

2024 tornado activity

This page documents all tornadoes confirmed by the European Severe Storms Laboratory or various governments or universities across Europe during 2024. Unlike the United States, the original Fujita Scale and the TORRO scale are used to rank tornadoes across the continent. (Full article...)

Tornado anniversaries

June 8

• 1953 – One of the deadliest single tornadoes in U.S. history, an F5 tornado devastated portions of Flint and Beecher, Michigan, killing 116 people and injuring 844. Homes were obliterated along a mile-long stretch of one road. This was the last single tornado in the United States to kill more than 100 people until the 2011 Joplin tornado.
• 1966 – An F5 tornado tore through Topeka, Kansas, killing 16 people and injuring 450. About 820 homes were destroyed and 3,000 were damaged as entire neighborhoods were leveled. The cost of damage was estimated at $100 to $250 million, $939 to $2,348 million in 2023, making it one of the costliest tornadoes in U.S. history.
• 1984 – Just after midnight, an F5 tornado damaged or destroyed 90% of Barneveld, Wisconsin, including a subdivision of new houses, which was obliterated. More homes were destroyed in and near Black Earth. Nine people were killed and about 200 were injured. Residents were awoken by a loud clap of thunder just a few minutes before the tornado struck.

June 9

• 1953 – One day after the devastating F5 tornado in Flint, Michigan, an F4 tornado (possibly F5) devastated Worcester, Massachusetts and the nearby communities of Shrewsbury, Southborough, and Westborough, killing 94 people and injuring nearly 1,300. This was the third extremely deadly tornado to strike the United States in 1953; the high death tolls led to the development of a nationwide warning system.
• 1984 – A devastating tornado outbreak struck the eastern Soviet Union. A tornado estimated at F5 intensity struck Ivanovo. There is considerable uncertainty about the death toll; with estimates ranging from 69 to over 400. A 320,000-kilogram (710,000 lb), was flipped and a 50,000-kilogram (110,000 lb), water tank was thrown 200 metres (660 ft) A second tornado near Kostroma may also have reached F5 intensity.

June 10

• 1938 – A slow-moving F5 tornado approached Clyde, Texas and made a sudden turn, devastating the west side of town and killing 14 people. A group of nine homes "vanished." A family of six attempting to flee in their car were picked up; four of the occupants died and the two survivors were found half a mile (0.8 km) away.
• 1958 – An F4 (possibly F5) tornado devastated the southwestern part of El Dorado, Kansas, destroying 200 homes and killing 15 people. A car was thrown 100 yards and crashed through the roof of a house.

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?

General images -

The following are images from various tornado-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  High-end EF4 damage to a house in Bremen (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
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  Radar collage of a supercell that spawned a tornado family during the outbreak (from Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021)
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  Low-end EF4 damage to a business in downtown Cayce (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
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  A satellite view of the extratropical cyclone that was responsible for the tornado outbreak on December 11. (from Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021)
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  Widespread devastation in a residential area of Dawson Springs (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
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  EF3 damage to businesses in downtown Dresden, Tennessee. (from Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021)
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  Major structural damage to a house near Hartford (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
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  High-end EF3 damage to homes in the Creekwood subdivision in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Numerous fatalities occurred in this area. (from Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021)
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  Radar 3D volume scan of the supercell showing debris lofted over 30,000 feet (9.1 km) in the air as the tornado struck Mayfield (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
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  Aerial view of EF4 damage in Mayfield the day after the tornado (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
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  A multi-ton freight car that was thrown from the tracks in Barnsley (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
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  Debris and destroyed homes along Alexander Street in Dawson Springs (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
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  Derecho moving across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa (from December 2021 Midwest derecho and tornado outbreak)
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  A liquor store that was destroyed in the western part of Bowling Green, Kentucky. (from Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021)
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  Trees that were completely debarked and denuded near Buckeye, Arkansas. (from Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021)

Featured Article or List -

This is either a featured article or featured list, which represents some of the best articles on English Wikipedia.

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Hailstones dropped during the storm, compared to a cricket ball (7 cm or 2.8 in diameter)

The 1999 Sydney hailstorm was the costliest natural disaster in Australian insurance history, causing extensive damage along the east coast of New South Wales. The storm developed south of Sydney on the afternoon of Wednesday, 14 April 1999, and struck the city's eastern suburbs, including the central business district, later that evening.

The storm dropped an estimated 500,000 tonnes of hailstones in its path. The insured damage bill caused by the storm was over A$1.7 billion (equivalent to $3.8 billion in 2022), with the total bill (including uninsured damage) estimated to be around $2.3 billion. It was the costliest single natural disaster in Australian history in insured damage, surpassing the $1.1 billion in insured damage caused by the 1989 Newcastle earthquake. Lightning also claimed one life during the storm, and the event caused approximately 50 injuries. (Full article...)

List of Featured articles and lists
Hurricane Katrina tornado outbreak List of Connecticut tornadoes List of tornadoes in the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak 2006 Westchester County tornado

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Tornadoes

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Related WikiProjects

The scope of WikiProject Severe weather is to write articles about severe weather, namely thunderstorms and tornadoes. Their talk page is located here.

WikiProject Weather is the main hub for all articles that are weather-related. WikiProject Weather strives to improve articles in a variety of weather topics, including Tropical Cyclones, Severe Weather, General meteorology, Non-tropical Storms, Climate, Floods, Droughts and wildfires, Meteorological instruments and data, Meteorological Biographies, and Space Weather. If you would like to help, please visit the project talk page.

WikiProject Meteorology is a collaborative effort by dozens of Wikipedians to improve the quality of meteorology- and weather-related articles. If you would like to help, visit the project talk page, and see what needs doing. The project is currently being merged into WikiProject Weather.

WikiProject Tropical cyclones is a daughter project of WikiProject meteorology. The dozens of semi-active members and several full-time members focus on improving Wikipedia's coverage of tropical cyclones.

Wikipedia is a fully collaborative effort by volunteers. So if you see something you think you can improve, be bold and get to editing! We appreciate any help you can provide!

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