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 -

Velocity scan of the Picher, Oklahoma tornado located near Racine, Missouri

A long-lived tornado outbreak sequence affected the Southern Plains, the southeastern and Middle Atlantic region of the United States from May 7–11, 2008. The storm produced 120 confirmed tornadoes starting on May 7 and lasting until late on May 11. The outbreak sequence killed 28 people across several states; 25 were killed by tornadoes. The event occurred less than a week after a deadly tornado outbreak that principally affected the state of Arkansas and killed 7 people. (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 October 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 -

(Full article...)

Related portals

2024 tornado activity

Mid-latitude cyclone responsible for the storm complex on January 9, 2024

A large and robust storm system, unofficially named Winter Storm Finn by The Weather Channel, brought widespread impacts to much of the contiguous United States early in January 2024. In the northern United States, heavy snow, hail, and gusty winds affected areas from the Great Plains to New England. In the southern United States, a widespread tornado outbreak along the Gulf Coast caused two fatalities and numerous injuries. (Full article...)

Tornado anniversaries

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.

May 19

• 1960 – An F4 tornado caused major damage in Meriden, Kansas, killing one person and injuring 91. In town, 64 homes were destroyed and 148 were damaged. Another F4 tornado, rated F5 by Thomas P. Grazulis, damaged or destroyed dozens of farms as it moved between Ogden and Rossville, Kansas.
• 1983 – A tornado outbreak impacted the Southern United States and Michigan. An F3 tornado damaged hundreds of buildings in Urania and Olla, Louisiana, killing one person and injuring 35.

May 20

• 1957 – A catastrophic F5 tornado moved through the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri, with the worst damage in Ruskin Heights, sweeping away many homes, killing 37 people, and injuring at least 500. This tornado, or a previous member of the tornado family killed 7 others in Kansas including 5 near Spring Hill.
• 2013 – A large EF5 tornado devastated parts of Moore, Oklahoma, killing 23 people. It was the second F5 or EF5 tornado to affect Moore, the other striking in 1999. Seven of the dead were students at Plaza Towers Elementary School. Damage totaled $2 billion, one of the costliest tornadoes in U.S. history.

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.

• 
  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)
• 
  Major structural damage to a house near Hartford (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
• 
  A multi-ton freight car that was thrown from the tracks in Barnsley (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
• 
  Low-end EF4 damage to a business in downtown Cayce (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
• 
  Debris and destroyed homes along Alexander Street in Dawson Springs (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
• 
  A liquor store that was destroyed in the western part of Bowling Green, Kentucky. (from Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021)
• 
  Radar collage of a supercell that spawned a tornado family during the outbreak (from Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021)
• 
  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)
• 
  EF3 damage to businesses in downtown Dresden, Tennessee. (from Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021)
• 
  High-end EF4 damage to a house in Bremen (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
• 
  Derecho moving across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa (from December 2021 Midwest derecho and tornado outbreak)
• 
  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)
• 
  Widespread devastation in a residential area of Dawson Springs (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
• 
  Aerial view of EF4 damage in Mayfield the day after the tornado (from 2021 Western Kentucky tornado)
• 
  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.

---

The California Closets Warehouse that was severely damaged by the tornado

The 2006 Westchester County tornado was the strongest and largest tornado in Westchester County, New York since the 1904 Chappaqua tornado. It touched down there on Wednesday, July 12, 2006, and traveled 13 miles (21 km) into southwestern Connecticut during a 33-minute span through two states. The tornado touched down at 3:30 p.m. EDT (19:30 UTC) on the shore of the Hudson River before becoming a waterspout and traveling 3 mi (5 km) across the river. Coming ashore, the tornado entered Westchester County and struck the town of Sleepy Hollow at F1 intensity. After passing through the town, it intensified into an F2 tornado and grew to almost a one-quarter mile (400 m) in diameter. The tornado continued through the county, damaging numerous structures, until it crossed into Connecticut at 4:01 p.m. EDT (20:01 UTC). Not long after entering the state, it dissipated in the town of Greenwich at 4:03 p.m. EDT (20:03 UTC). When the tornado entered Westchester County, it was the eighth known tornado to either touch down or enter the county since 1950.

Two barns and a warehouse were destroyed, and a large stained-glass window was shattered. Numerous homes and businesses were damaged and thousands of trees were uprooted. There were no fatalities and only six minor injuries were associated with the storm. The cost of damages was estimated at $12.1 million. (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 1999 Sydney hailstorm

Topics

Subcategories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories

Tornadoes

Tornadoes by continent

Tornadoes by country

Tornadoes by year

19th-century tornadoes

20th-century tornadoes

Buildings and structures destroyed by tornado

Deaths in tornadoes

Satellite tornadoes

Tornado outbreaks

Tornado-related lists

Works about tornadoes

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!

Things you can do

Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : WikiProject Weather article requests Expand : Severe weather Stubs : Expand Thunderstorm and tornado stub articles

Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

• 

  Commons
  Free media repository

• 

  Wikibooks
  Free textbooks and manuals

• 

  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base

• 

  Wikinews
  Free-content news

• 

  Wikiquote
  Collection of quotations

• 

  Wikisource
  Free-content library

• 

  Wikiversity
  Free learning tools

• 

  Wikivoyage
  Free travel guide

• 

  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

Discover Wikipedia using portals

• 

  List of all portals

• 

  The arts portal

• 

  Biography portal

• 

  Current events portal

• 

  Geography portal

• 

  History portal

• 

  Mathematics portal

• 

  Science portal

• 

  Society portal

• 

  Technology portal

• 

  Random portal

• 

  WikiProject Portals