| F#/EF#
|
State / Country
|
Date
|
Fatalities
|
Injuries
|
Article
|
GAN
|
DYK
|
Class
|
|
| F5–equiv.
|
Illinois
|
March 18, 1925
|
695
|
2027
|
1925 Tri-State tornado
|
|
|
|
I was very surprised to find this tornado didn't have an article. It is the deadliest in U.S. history and infamous in the Wx community. It's also the deadliest I've ever written about officially, although the 1973 Bangladesh tornado was likely deadlier. It is widely accepted to have been of F5 strength, tearing trees out of a hillside. It's the longest-tracked of all time, as well.
|
| F4
|
Paraguay
|
September 20, 1926
|
300+
|
500+
|
1926 Encarnación tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| F5
|
Texas
|
April 12, 1927
|
74
|
205
|
1927 Rocksprings tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| F5
|
Arkansas
|
April 10, 1929
|
23
|
80
|
Sneed Tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| IF5
|
Italy
|
July 24, 1930
|
23
|
110
|
1930 Montello tornado
|
|
|
|
Officially, this is the only "IF5" tornado ever recorded, being upgraded in 2024. It was incredibly rare and long-tracked for the region, leaving a long path of destruction through several towns in Italy. Images of an obliterated brick church are usually what people think of when this tornado is brought up.
|
| F4
|
Poland
|
July 20, 1931
|
6
|
100+
|
1931 Lublin tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| F5
|
Texas
|
April 3, 1964
|
7
|
111
|
1964 Wichita Falls tornado
|
|
|
|
This tornado is actually overshadowed by an even-weaker tornado, the 1979 Wichita Falls F4! This was the first tornado to ever be captured on live news cameras, and surprisingly didn't look like an F5, despite being incredibly powerful.
|
| F5
|
Iowa
|
May 15, 1968
|
13
|
462
|
1968 Hansell-Charles City tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| F5
|
Iowa
|
May 15, 1968
|
5
|
156
|
1968 Oelwein tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| FU
|
Bangladesh
|
April 17, 1973
|
681+
|
1000
|
1973 Faridpur District tornado
|
|
|
|
Was likely the deadliest tornado I've ever written about. Official tally is 681 fatalities, but it was likely much higher than that due to Bangladesh's extremely dense population.
|
| F5
|
Ohio
|
April 3, 1974
|
6
|
210
|
1974 Cincinnati tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| F5
|
Kentucky
|
April 3, 1974
|
31
|
257
|
1974 Brandenburg tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| F5
|
Alabama
|
April 3, 1974
|
28
|
267
|
1974 Tanner tornadoes#First tornado
|
|
|
|
Tanner just can't catch a break! These two incredibly violent tornadoes formed after each other, producing catastrophic damage to the town of Tanner, Alabama and killing a combined total of 55 people. They are one of only two F5 "pairs" ever recorded; the only other happened in 1990.
|
| F5
|
Alabama
|
April 3, 1974
|
16
|
190
|
1974 Tanner tornadoes#Second tornado
|
|
|
|
| F5
|
Alabama
|
April 3, 1974
|
28
|
272
|
1974 Guin tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| F1
|
New York
|
November 16, 1989
|
10
|
18
|
1989 Coldenham tornado
|
|
|
|
Easily the deadliest F1 tornado ever recorded due to it hitting and collapsing a brick wall on top of schoolchildren eating lunch. Very tragic story.
|
| F5
|
Kansas
|
April 26, 1991
|
17
|
225
|
1991 Andover tornado
|
|
|
|
This tornado almost hit two nuclear bombs! Luckily it just barely missed.
|
| F5
|
Texas
|
May 27, 1997
|
27
|
12
|
Jarrell tornado
|
|
|
|
One of the more famous tornadoes I've written about; it's known as the "Dead Man Walking" due to a famous photograph that was taken as it was condensing.
|
| F4
|
Ohio
|
September 20, 2000
|
1
|
100
|
2000 Xenia tornado
|
|
|
|
Widely overshadowed by the 1974 Xenia tornado. This is the closest tornado to my city with an article, although where it impacted is still an hour away from me.
|
| F4
|
Kansas
|
April 21, 2001
|
1
|
28
|
2001 Hoisington tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| EF5
|
Kansas
|
May 4, 2007
|
11
|
63
|
Greensburg tornado
|
|
|
|
Ah, this article is my pride and joy. At 100,000 bytes, it is the largest article (not including lists) that I've ever written, and yet has managed to fail the WP:FAC process four times in a row. It gets an average of ~20,000 pageviews, and is known for literally "wiping" a Kansas town off the map. This tornado was responsible for a tornado emergency.
|
| EF4
|
Oklahoma
|
May 10, 2008
|
21
|
350
|
2008 Picher–Neosho tornado
|
|
|
|
Instead of wiping out a Kansas town, this tornado wiped out an Oklahoma town. The difference is that Picher never rebuilt, and sits abandoned today.
|
| EF2
|
Wyoming
|
June 5, 2009
|
0
|
0
|
2009 Goshen County tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| EF4
|
South Dakota
|
May 22, 2010
|
0
|
0
|
2010 Bowdle tornado
|
|
|
|
This tornado happened exactly one year before the Joplin tornado, one of the deadliest in U.S. history.
|
| EF4
|
Minnesota
|
June 17, 2010
|
1
|
14
|
2010 Conger–Albert Lea tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| EF4
|
Alabama
|
April 27, 2011
|
6
|
48
|
2011 Cullman–Arab tornado
|
|
|
|
The Cullman tornado is one of my favorites. It is well-known in the Wx community due to its well-documented multiple-vortex structure as it tore through an Alabama town, although it took five lives as a large "wedge", meaning it was wider than it was tall. A very tragic event indeed. This tornado was responsible for a tornado emergency.
|
| EF4
|
Alabama
|
April 27, 2011
|
13
|
54
|
2011 Cordova–Blountsville tornado
|
|
|
|
This is my favorite tornado, mainly due to the little amount of coverage surrounding it and some incredible photographs and videos that were taken of it. This tornado is little-known in the Wx community, as it was overshadowed by other tornadoes that took place on April 27, 2011. This tornado was responsible for multiple tornado emergencies.
|
| EF4
|
Georgia
|
April 27, 2011
|
20+
|
335
|
2011 Ringgold–Apison tornado
|
|
|
|
One of 16 tornadoes in Georgia history to kill over twenty people, this EF4 (considered by some to be of EF5 intensity) tornado produced extreme damage to homes in Ringgold, Georgia, before devastating rural structures along Cherokee Valley Road, where many of the deaths occurred. This tornado picked up a gun safe and dropped it on top of a sheltering family; it also produced other feats of incredible strength.
|
| EF4
|
Indiana
|
March 2, 2012
|
12
|
0+
|
2012 Southern Indiana tornado
|
|
|
|
This is one of few tornadoes in history to still have a retained injury toll of "unknown", along with the 2011 Rainsville tornado a year prior. This tornado is believed by some (including me) to have been of EF5 intensity, due to it ripping chunks of pavement out of the ground and slamming them so hard into the ground that the pieces made impact craters.
|
| EF4
|
Texas
|
May 15, 2013
|
6
|
54
|
2013 Granbury tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| EF4
|
Nebraska
|
October 4, 2013
|
0
|
15
|
2013 Wayne tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| EF4
|
Arkansas
|
April 27, 2014
|
16
|
193
|
2014 Mayflower–Vilonia tornado
|
|
|
|
This tornado is widely considered to be an EF5 in the Wx community; I was surprised to see it didn't have an article.
|
| EF4
|
Texas
|
December 26, 2015
|
10
|
468
|
2015 Garland tornado
|
|
|
|
|
| EF4
|
Oklahoma
|
May 9, 2016
|
1
|
0
|
2016 Katie tornado
|
|
|
|
This tornado killed one person and surprisingly didn't injure anybody, leaving a weird casualty toll of one. That isn't to say it was out in the middle of nowhere, though, several storm chasers got incredible footage of it. My personal favorite is "Violent Katie-Wynnewood, OK Tornado 5/9/2016" by the Storm Chasing Channel.
|
| EF3–equiv.
|
California
|
July 26, 2018
|
3
|
5
|
2018 Carr Fire tornado
|
|
|
|
Yes, a fire tornado does have an article on Wikipedia. It's the deadliest fire tornado ever recorded and the most powerful, producing EF3-equivalent wind speeds. The tornado caught firefighters who were working the Carr Fire off-guard, resulting in three deaths.
|
| EF3
|
Mississippi
|
February 23, 2019
|
1
|
19
|
2019 Columbus, Mississippi, tornado
|
|
|
|
This tornado, widely forgotten by the Wx community, moved through Columbus, Mississippi, causing EF3-rated damage and killing one person. It was a large stovepipe, something seen in the several videos taken of the tornado.
|
| EF3
|
California
|
March 3, 2020
|
5
|
220
|
2020 Nashville tornado
|
|
|
|
This EF3 tornado tore through downtown Nashville, Tennessee and later Mount Juliet, killing five people and producing an injury count in the hundreds. It was covered live by several news agencies and was the subject of a relatively famous video from crane operators who got caught in the tornado high above the ground.
|
| EF3
|
Arkansas
|
March 28, 2020
|
0
|
12
|
2020 Jonesboro tornado
|
|
|
|
Somehow, COVID-19 saved lives! Due to the tornado happening in the initial stages of the widespread COVID-19 pandemic in Arkansas, most people were in quarantine at homes and thus were not caught out in the open by the tornado. It did destroy a mall and injure twelve people, however.
|
| EF3
|
Alabama
|
January 25, 2021
|
1
|
30
|
2021 Fultondale tornado
|
|
|
|
The Fultondale tornado was a prime example of what happens when nighttime, winter and warning ignorance meet. Meteorologist James Spann stated that the single fatality from the event was the result of failing to heed warnings. Tornadoes don't usually happen in January, too, so this is an outlier for the region.
|
| EF3
|
Kentucky
|
December 11, 2021
|
17
|
63
|
2021 Bowling Green tornadoes#Rockford–Bowling Green–Sunnyside–Cedar Spring, Kentucky
|
|
|
|
These two large tornadoes barreled through the town of Bowling Green, Kentucky, producing extensive damage to town. The tornadoes killed a combined total of 17 people, although every fatality and injury was from the EF3 that moved through downtown. This same outbreak produced the infamous Mayfield tornado that killed over 50 people in Kentucky.
|
| EF2
|
Kentucky
|
December 11, 2021
|
0
|
0
|
2021 Bowling Green tornadoes#Bowling Green, Kentucky
|
|
|
|
| EF4
|
Iowa
|
March 5, 2022
|
6
|
5
|
2022 Winterset tornado
|
|
|
|
This widely-forgotten tornado tore across relatively rural areas southwest of Des Moines, Iowa, ultimately taking six lives on a single road. The tornado was well-documented by storm chasers, being the subject of storm chase videos like "WINTERSET, IOWA WEDGE TORNADO".
|
| EF3
|
Kansas
|
April 29, 2022
|
0
|
3
|
2022 Andover tornado
|
|
|
|
This tornado had some incredible footage come out of it, including Reed Timmer's famous "JAW-DROPPING Tornado Drone Footage Shows Kansas Town Get Ripped Apart" and the City of Andover's "Andover Tornado, April 29, 2022, City Hall East Camera". Overall an incredible event with no loss of life.
|
| EF2
|
Alabama
|
January 12, 2023
|
0
|
2
|
2023 Selma tornado
|
|
|
|
This tornado moved through the "civil rights capital of America" just a few days before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, celebrated in memory of esteemed civil rights activist and pastor Martin Luther King Jr. MLK himself had to been to Selma, which makes the timing and location of this tornado just that much more crazier.
|
| EF3
|
Indiana
|
March 31, 2023
|
6
|
16
|
2023 Robinson–Sullivan tornado
|
|
|
|
This large tornado prompted the issuance of two tornado emergencies for the cities of Robinson, Illinois and Sullivan, Indiana, which is incredibly rare. It was likely violent, producing extreme cycloidal marking in the ground as it moved through rural areas. Despite the extreme strength, only 6 people died.
|
| EF3
|
Virginia
|
March 31, 2023
|
0
|
0
|
2023 Virginia Beach tornado
|
|
|
|
While no injuries were produced by this destructive tornado, it is the furthest-east I've ever written about in the United States.
|
| EF3
|
Oklahoma
|
April 27, 2024
|
1
|
30
|
2024 Sulphur tornado
|
|
|
|
I watched this one happen live! Saw it on radar and early the next morning was horrified by some of the damage photos that came out of Sulphur, Oklahoma.
|
| EF4
|
Oklahoma
|
May 6, 2024
|
2
|
55
|
2024 Barnsdall–Bartlesville tornado
|
|
|
|
One of the more recent EF4 tornadoes we've seen, is well-known for its incredible hook echo signature on NEXRAD radar. This tornado was responsible for a tornado emergency.
|
| EF4
|
Kentucky
|
May 16, 2025
|
19
|
10
|
2025 Somerset–London tornado
|
|
|
|
This is the tornado of 2025. It's the deadliest since 2021, and is one of the most horrific tornado events in the 2020s decade, if not all time. As with Sulphur, I watched this one live, my whole reaction as it was happening can be seen in this thread from pages 85 to 100, under the username "OH-IOan". Several of us actually started getting nauseous watching it impact the London area, where it was later found that 17 lost their lives. I'd rank this tornado as the second-worst in terms of emotional impact that I've written about after the Greensburg tornado. Somehow, no tornado emergency was issued, which I am still pissed about to this day.
|
