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 -

This article describes severe weather terminology used by the National Weather Service (NWS) in the United States. The NWS, a government agency operating as an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) branch of the United States Department of Commerce (DoC), defines precise meanings for nearly all of its weather terms.

This article describes NWS terminology and related weather scales used by the agency. Some terms may be specific to certain cities or regions. Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) product codes assigned to each term for NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) broadcasts are included in parentheses following the title of the described alert type if used; products that do not have a specified code are identified where applicable as Non-Precipitation Warnings/Watches/Advisories (NPW), Coastal Flood Warnings/Watches/Advisories (CFW), Marine Weather Statement (MWS), Surf Discussion (SRD) or Winter Weather Warnings/Watches/Advisories (WSW) as defined by NOAA. (Full article...)
List of selected tornado articles

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 from November to December 2013. Based on the 1991–2010 averaging period, 58 tornadoes occur across the United States throughout November while 24 more occur in December.

Despite only having only four tornado day, November finished well-above average with 82 tornadoes, 77 of which touched down during a large and deadly outbreak on November 17. The outbreak was the deadliest and costliest November tornado outbreak in Illinois, and the fourth-largest for the state overall. Indiana also experienced its largest outbreak for the month of November, and the second largest outbreak recorded in the state. A significant outbreak also occurred in December, which finished at a near-average 18 tornadoes. (Full article...)
List of selected tornado lists

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An F2 tornado damaging Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on July 6, 2001.

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Final totals through December 31

Confirmed tornadoes by Enhanced Fujita rating
EFU EF0 EF1 EF2 EF3 EF4 EF5 Total
0 691 401 65 18 3 0 1,178
(Full article...)
List of tornadoes by year

Recent tornado outbreaks

Recent tornado outbreaks

May

  • May 11−12
A large-scale tornado outbreak occurs in the Central United States, including a large tornado near Uehling, Nebraska. (SPC, WOWT)
  • May 6–7
Three people are injured in a tornado outbreak across the United States, which includes an EF2 tornado. (DAT)


Previous months: April

Tornado anniversaries

May 16

  • 1999 – An F3 tornado destroyed several homes and a bridge near Logan, Iowa. Two people, out of a family of five taking cover in a ditch, were killed when their car and a combine header were blown on top of them.
  • 2017 – The most destructive day of an outbreak sequence brought several strong tornadoes to the Central United States. An EF3 tornado traveled 83 miles (134 km) across parts of Wisconsin, the longest single tornado track in state history, and devastated a trailer park near Chetek, killing one person and injuring 25. An EF2 tornado killed one person near Carter, Oklahoma.

May 17

May 18

  • 1883 – A tornado outbreak killed 64 people across the Central United States with the worst impacts in Illinois. Eight people died in Racine, Wisconsin where homes were "ground to pieces" by an F4 tornado. Eight more were killed when another F4 tornado destroyed Greasy Prairie, Illinois. A "balloon-shaped" F4 tornado carved a path through Springfield, Illinois and leveled numerous farms, killing 11 people. Another 12 were killed by a tornado that damaged or destroyed all of Literberry, Illinois.
  • 1898 – A tornado outbreak left 55 people dead in the Midwestern United States. An F4 tornado or tornado family killed 28 people across western Iowa and eastern Illinois along with hundreds of livestock. A massive F5 tornado killed 12 people in Marathon County, Wisconsin.
  • 1902 – An F4 tornado cut a devastating path through Goliad, Texas, obliterating 100 buildings and killing 114 people. More than a quarter of the town's population was killed or injured. Many of the deaths in the aftermath were due to tetanus.

Did you know…

General images -

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

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This is either a featured article or featured list, which represents some of the best articles on English Wikipedia.
An enlarged map of the main event of the tornado outbreak across central and northeast Oklahoma and extreme southeastern Kansas. The map denotes city locations, shading more densely populated areas in yellow, and major roads are shown. Sixty-six tornado tracks are plotted as colored lines on the map, with their colors corresponding to one of the eleven parent storm cells the tornadoes were produced by. The majority of tracks are concentrated around the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area which is seen as a large yellow-shaded area slightly offset from the center of the map.
Map of confirmed tornadoes across Oklahoma and southern Kansas on May 3

From May 2 to 8, 1999, a large tornado outbreak took place across much of the Central and parts of the Eastern United States, as well as southern Canada. During this week-long event, 152 tornadoes touched down in these areas. The most dramatic events unfolded during the afternoon of May 3 through the early morning hours of May 4 when more than half of these storms occurred. Oklahoma experienced its largest tornado outbreak on record, with 70 confirmed. The most notable of these was the F5 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado which devastated Oklahoma City and suburban communities. The tornado killed 36 people and injured 583 others; losses amounted to $1 billion, making it the first billion-dollar tornado in history. Overall, 50 people lost their lives during the outbreak and damage amounted to $1.4 billion.

On May 2, a strong area of low pressure moved out of the Rocky Mountains and into the High Plains, producing scattered severe weather and ten tornadoes in Nebraska. The following day, atmospheric conditions across Oklahoma became significantly more favorable for an outbreak of severe weather. Wind profiles across the region strongly favored tornadic activity, with the Storm Prediction Center stating, "it became more obvious something major was looming" by the afternoon hours. Numerous supercell thunderstorms developed across the state as well as bordering areas in Kansas and Texas. Over the following 48 hours, May 3–4, 116 tornadoes touched down across the Central United States. Following the extensive outbreak, activity became increasingly scattered from May 5 to 8, with 26 tornadoes touching down across the Eastern United States and Quebec.

(Full article...)

Topics

Subcategories

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Tornadoes
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Tornado-related lists
Works about tornadoes

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