Portal:Tornadoes

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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.
Rain-obscured shot of the F3 tornado in Gallatin, Tennessee that killed seven people.

The tornado outbreak of April 6–8, 2006, was a major tornado outbreak in the central and parts of the southern United States that began on April 6, 2006, in the Great Plains and continued until April 8 in South Carolina, with most of the activity on April 7. The hardest-hit region was Middle Tennessee, where several strong tornadoes devastated entire neighborhoods and left ten people dead. Some of the worst damage took place in Gallatin, Tennessee, and other communities north of Nashville also sustained significant damage.

There were 73 tornadoes confirmed across 13 states, with the bulk of them coming on the afternoon and evening of April 7 across the South, particularly in Tennessee. In total, 10 deaths were reported as a result of the tornadoes, and over $650 million in damage was reported, of which over $630 million was in Middle Tennessee. It was the third major outbreak of 2006, occurring just days after another major outbreak on April 2. It was also considered by some to be the worst disaster event in Middle Tennessee since the 1998 tornado outbreak. (Full article...)
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This is a list of all tornadoes reported in the US state of Rhode Island. Although tornadoes are very rare in this state, around 20 have been recorded in modern history. Additionally, because of high population density and property values, Rhode Island ranks 5th among states in potential losses due to tornadoes. (Full article...)
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US tornado tracks in 1961

This page documents the tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1961, primarily in the United States. 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.

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List of tornadoes by year

Related portals

Recent tornado outbreaks

Recent tornado outbreaks

July

  • July 1
A violent EF4 tornado hits Mountain View County, Alberta, Canada, becoming only the third EF4 tornado in the province's history. (Northern Tornadoes Project)
  • July 12–13
Several tornadoes occur in the Midwestern United States and Central Canada, including an EF1 tornado that passed through the suburbs of Chicago. (NWSChicago)
  • July 16
A rare EF1 tornado touches down in Aguada, Puerto Rico, significantly damaging two houses. (Iowa State University)


Previous months: June, May

Tornado anniversaries

April 26

April 27

  • 1942 – An F4 tornado destroyed about a third of Pryor, Oklahoma, killing 52 people. Many of the homes destroyed had been hastily built during the town's wartime expansion.
  • 2011 – The peak of the 2011 Super Outbreak saw 216 tornadoes produced in 24 hours across the Southeastern United States. Four EF5s and eleven EF4s were among the tornadoes that devastated parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. The death toll on April 27 was 319. For the entire outbreak, 360 tornadoes occurred over four days, resulting in 324 fatalities.

April 28

  • 1893 – An F4 tornado severely damaged or destroyed every building in Cisco, Texas, killing at least 23 people. Half of the town's population was left with no shelter of any kind and 43 of the 45 businesses in town were destroyed. An entire train was thrown 80–200 feet (24–61 m) from the tracks.
  • 1950 – Strong tornadoes killed 11 people in Oklahoma and Texas. Five died as an F4 tornado swept away two homes near Clyde, Texas. A refrigerator was carried half a mile (0.8 km) and stuck on top of a telephone pole. Another F4 tornado killed five people as it devastated Holdenville, Oklahoma. One other person died near Lone Wolf, Oklahoma.
  • 2002 – Part of a larger outbreak, a rare F4 tornado hit La Plata, Maryland, killing three people and inuring more than 100. The tornado was initially rated F5, but it was downgraded after the swept-away houses were found to have been very poorly anchored. A report on this tornado led to the creation of a "Quick Response Team" for assessing damage from potential F4 and F5 tornadoes.

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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.

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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.

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.

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