When a tornado warning is issued, residents of the impacted area should immediately seek shelter, even if they can’t see the twister. In some instances, the tornado may not even be visible. This is the case when a tornado is rain-wrapped, or when rainfall obscures a tornado from view, as well as nighttime tornadoes when it may be too dark to see the twister.
Little Rock, Arkansas, resident Mike Green had been working in his home office on March 31 when he heard on the news that a wall cloud had formed. These cloud formations sometimes serve as a warning that a tornado is possible, and sure enough, when Green looked out the window, there was the wall cloud. “I actually saw the wall cloud, so I took it seriously. For the first time in my life, I took a tornado warning seriously,” he told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell. In a snap decision that likely saved his life, he ran to the basement. When the tornado hit, it blew in walls and shattered the windows of his home office. “I would have been under all of this,” Green said, referencing the large pile of debris that had collapsed over where he had been sitting moments before the tornado had struck.
Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer intercepted a rain-wrapped tornado outside of Fort Hood, Texas, Friday afternoon as severe weather broke out across the central U.S. "Here you can see the storm -- very low wall cloud, very likely wedge right in this vicinity," Timmer said, pointing into the storm. "You can see the clear slot as well."
The severe weather brought other hazards to the area, including hail and strong wind gusts. The large hailstones fell over Hamilton, Texas, shortly before 2:30 CDT, and while the NWS Storm Prediction Center didn't list confirmed tornado reports as of 5:30 p.m. CDT, it noted a wind gust of 76 mph in Bell County, Texas.
Being weather aware and knowing when dangerous weather conditions are approaching can be life-saving information, especially during a severe weather outbreak. Here are a few ways you can stay safe:
•Keep a NOAA weather radio on hand for local weather updates, watches and warnings.
•Heed the warnings of local officials, weather alerts and outdoor sirens.
•Watch the AccuWeather Network and monitor AccuWeather’s website to stay updated with the latest weather information.
•Download the free AccuWeather app on a smartphone and enable push notifications. Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app. AccuWeather Alerts™ are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer. These custom alerts can provide critical time to seek shelter before life-threatening weather moves into the area.
In March 2022, one New Orleans suburb was left devastated by an EF3 tornado that packed winds up to 160 miles per hour. In Arabi, Louisiana, some houses were demolished, while others just feet away only received minor damage. “I just feel so blessed,” Arabi resident Lyndell Clair, who had a neighboring home destroyed by the tornado, told AccuWeather. “I keep on thinking, I’ve got to do something good because there was a reason my house was spared; it was that close. It was terrifying.” Houses that were slammed by the tornado still had random items spared from the destruction. In one Arabi residence, a roof and some walls were blown away, but a selection of random items on a table remained in place.
The scattershot nature of tornadoes has been felt in other places besides Arabi. The Daily Mail reported that in March 2019, a house in Ellerslie, Georgia, was left untouched by a tornado despite trees being torn to the ground on all sides of the house. During the same severe weather outbreak that impacted Arabi, a twister touched down in Cushing, Texas, yet three large crosses were spared any significant damage, KETK News reported. “It’s a living testimony of God’s power ... it just shows you the power of God and his faithfulness and he is just showing out,” Cushing resident Dee Randell said. “I know he’s here. I can feel it.”
Every second counts when a tornado strikes, so a vital part of having a tornado plan is knowing where to take shelter. While there is no guaranteed “safe” location in a tornado, some places may offer more protection than others depending on the structure.
•Sheltering in a foundation-based house: Rooms like closets, bathrooms and other rooms without windows are typically the go-to shelter location for people in on-site homes during a tornado. Knowing the acronym DUCK (get down to the lowest level, get under something sturdy, cover your head and keep in a shelter until the storm has passed) can be life-saving.
•Where to go if you live in a mobile home: Staying in a mobile home during severe weather is extremely dangerous, even if it's tied down properly. Residents should have a plan in place to give themselves plenty of time to drive to a shelter. Meteorologist and Mississippi University Ph.D. student Craig "Ceecee" Croskery created a map of tornado shelters that can be found at findyourtornadoshelter.com.
•When severe weather strikes on the road: Experts advise motorists to stay off the road until severe weather clears; however, if it strikes while driving, there are ways to lessen any danger. Never seek shelter under a bridge or overpass, which can amplify the speeds of the winds and offer little to no protection from flying debris. Seek sturdy shelter in a sturdy structure, especially underground. "If you are unable to make it to a safe shelter, either get down in your car and cover your head or abandon your car and seek shelter in a low-lying area such as a ditch or ravine," the National Weather Service recommends.
The term Tornado Alley was first coined in 1952 when two meteorologists — Major Ernest J. Fawbush and Captain Robert C. Miller — studied severe weather in parts of Texas and Oklahoma. And since then, the term has stuck around as a way to describe the area that encompasses parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, where it was believed tornado activity was the most frequent.
But with powerful tornadoes decimating areas in the Midwest and southeastern United States, there now may be a reason to believe that Tornado Alley has shifted east. “When you look at the trends in where tornadoes have occurred in recent years, it’s very clear that there have been more tornadoes farther south and farther east away from what people have typically known as the Tornado Alley across the Plains,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter explained. Click here to learn more about the research behind a shift in tornado frequency and how defining Tornado Alley is not as easy as it seems.
While tornadoes often last for mere minutes, they are capable of destruction that can impact people for years after the storm. “I’ve seen Chevy Avalanches basically twisted into almost a doughnut,” Jim LaDue, the acting director of the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program, told AccuWeather in an interview. “Houses come apart — not only come apart, but the debris winds up getting pulverized and turns into flying missiles, and that basically attacks other homes nearby.” LaDue described how in one instance he had seen the silverware impaled into the stucco of a home.
Mobile and manufactured homes often experience the worst damage during a tornado, as they offer little shelter even when properly tied down. “We often don’t see anything except frames wrapped around stubs of trees,” LaDue said.
Seeking safety as soon as possible is key to tornado survival, and having a plan in place can help you and your family take shelter quickly and effectively. For those who wish to take shelter outside of their home, Meteorologist and Mississippi State University Ph.D. student Craig "Ceecee" Croskery created a map of tornado shelters that can be found at findyourtornadoshelter.com.
When severe weather threatens a school district, school officials are faced with a choice: keep students in the buildings to take shelter or send them home early. “It all boils down to one question: Where are people the safest?" AccuWeather Meteorologist Jake Sojda said. There is no universal, one-size fits all solution, and school districts in the Midwest were faced with this decision when the largest tornado outbreak to affect the country since 2021 struck the region and the Southeast on March 31, 2023.
Read how they handled the tornado outbreak here.
The families hit hardest by the spring severe weather outbreaks are still facing emotional and economic turmoil caused by the storms. Questions such as whether they can afford to rebuild, where they will work and how they will travel have risen to the forefront. In addition to these uncertainties, some people are also now facing survivor's guilt and PTSD. Dana Dew, a survivor of the Rolling Fork, Mississippi, tornado, told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell that she was grateful that she, her family and her neighbors had made it out alive but was “devastated” after they “lost it all.”
Kelly Perry told Wadell he and his wife had lived in his home in Rolling Forks for 16 to 18 years before the tornado came through and destroyed it. “[We] literally took a few steps, fell into the closet and it [the tornado] was here,” Perry said. “We ended up in the back corner under all of that, and if we wouldn’t have been in the closet, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Watch the rest of Wadell’s coverage here:
People who survived the intense power and destruction of tornadoes this spring are now facing a mix of emotions and tough decisions as they try to recover.
When it arrived in theaters in May 1996, “Twister” influenced a generation of storm chasers and sparked curiosity about meteorology. One of the blockbuster film’s plot points borrowed inspiration from methods meteorologists used in the 1970s, technology that has been described as ahead of its time despite never becoming a mainstream entity.
In the film, meteorologists used Dorothy, a ground probe that was based on a real-life attempt to research tornadoes. Researchers attempted to place the equipment in a tornado’s path to measure wind speed and other meteorological variables at ground level. “TOTO, a 55-gallon drum that researchers attempted to place in the path of a tornado, inspired screenwriters Michael Crichton and Ann Marie Martin to develop the story that would become the 1996 movie Twister,” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory said in a post on Facebook on the day of the film's 25th anniversary.
Groups attempted to deploy TOTO in tornado tracks but never got a direct hit, with the closest encounter taking place in 1984. Though the device was retired in 1987, it helped make “Twister” into a massive hit, grossing over $240 million at the box office. “I was on a trajectory to become a storm chaser and [the movie] only solidified that track,” Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer said about the movie’s legacy. “Ever since I saw that movie, I was even more dedicated to devoting my entire life to chasing down storms.”
TOTO, a red 55-gallon barrel outfitted with weather sensors, was used by NOAA researchers to study tornadoes. Dorothy and D.O.T.3 are props based on TOTO and were used in the movie 'Twister.' All three are on display at the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma. (NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory)
As AccuWeather Digital Journalist and Meteorologist Brian Lada explained in a piece earlier in Tornado Week, there are many different types of tornadoes. In fact, Lada broke down 10 different types of twisters that are commonly observed in the United States. Landspouts are one of those. While a landspout may look like an ordinary tornado, there are some notable differences. Watch the video below for an analysis of how landspouts and tornadoes can differ.
As severe storms struck Colorado on April 25, a landspout was captured on video. But what exactly makes a landspout different from a tornado? Allow us to explain.
Mississippi emergency management officials are still working to pick up the pieces a month after severe weather killed 21 people in the state. A new video released by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency shows the progress made in the town of Rolling Fork, which was decimated by an EF4 tornado that left a 59-mile-long path of devastation in its wake. While some debris remains, a large portion of the mess has been cleaned up in Rolling Fork, and emergency management officials reported that nearly 380,000 cubic yards of debris have been removed throughout the state.
Mississippi officials and the Red Cross have partnered to assist 533 Mississippi residents with food and lodging. As of April 17, the U.S. Small Business Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency have approved more than $12 million to help affected homeowners and renters recover from the March storms. In total, throughout the seven impacted counties in Mississippi, over 1,600 homes were damaged.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency shared a series of before and after videos of tornado recovery efforts in Rolling Fork from March 26 to April 25. Local communities are making progress.
On the latest episode of AccuWeather’s Everything Under the Sun podcast, extreme meteorologist Reed Timmer joined AccuWeather Meteorologist Dean DeVore to discuss some of the wildest tornadoes he has encountered during his 25-year career as a storm chaser. Timmer, who has intercepted more than 600 twisters, also chatted about what goes into his day-to-day planning. Listen to the episode below.
The catastrophic damage that an EF5 tornado can produce has not been seen in the United States in nearly a decade. Next month will mark the 10-year anniversary of the last tornado rated at EF5 strength on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. On May 20, 2013, a deadly and destructive tornado rocked Moore, Oklahoma, and surrounding cities. The tornado killed 24 and left hundreds injured through its roughly 20-mile-long path, causing around $2 billion in damage in 2013 USD. The tornado struck multiple elementary schools in the area, killing seven children at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore when a wall collapsed.
A damaged sign lies outside the wreckage of Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven children were killed when a tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma, in May 2013. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Next month will also mark the 10-year anniversary of what is known as the widest tornado on record. On May 31, 2013, an enormous tornado struck El Reno, Oklahoma, leaving eight people dead. Three storm chasers, Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras and Carl Young, were killed east of U.S. Highway 81. “It still doesn’t make sense … it doesn’t seem fair,” AccuWeather Storm Chaser and Meteorologist Tony Laubach said of the fates of the chasers, who he was close with. “They were doing research. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their legacy just isn’t very well honored. These guys were three of the most experienced chasers in their field.”
This photo shows a heavily damaged white Chevy Cobalt near the intersection of Reuter Road and S. Radio Road, or 4.8 miles southeast of El Reno, OK. Three storm chasers were killed when this vehicle was hit by one of sub-vortices within the larger circulation of the "El Reno" tornado.
Although conditions in Kansas seemed peaceful on May 28, 2019, storm chaser Connor McCrorey felt different, eventually catching up to a large tornado. McCrorey and a partner eventually were right in the middle of the storm, with dust being whipped heavily onto their vehicle.
“I nailed a tornado forecast outside the main risk area in Kansas … I saw tornadoes of all shapes and sizes dancing across beautiful green fields with blue skies all around the storm, and even a rainbow behind a tornado to cap it all off,” McCrorey told AccuWeather. The tornado developed in southwestern Douglas County, eventually producing EF4 damage when reaching Leavenworth County. Estimated peak winds were 170 mph over the path length of 31.82 miles. A total of 18 injuries were suffered as a result of the tornado.
Storm chaser Conner McCrorey shares the most memorable tornado chase of his career.
Storm chasing can be a long and stressful experience, something chaser Mike Scantlin knows all about. For two straight days on May 24 and 25, 2016, Scantlin covered a bevy of tornadoes in Kansas, including an EF4 tornado that tracked for 26 miles through Ottawa and Dickinson counties.
“The first day near Dodge City, Kansas, we saw 12 or more tornadoes … and the next day was the exact opposite, where a storm produced one 90-minute-long tornado that was all shapes and sizes,” Scantlin told AccuWeather. “Fortunately, no major injuries or major damage from either one.” The EF4 tornado lasted from 7:07 p.m. to 8:40 p.m., local time, and did destroy a farmstead southwest of Chapman.
Storm chaser Mike Scantlin shares the most memorable tornado chase of his career.
A tornado research team called PERiLS is working hard to learn more about the formation of tornadoes in the Southeast. The Perils project stands for Propagation, Evolution and Rotation in Linear Storms. Their mission is to hit the roads in the Southeast to understand how the environment around a line of severe thunderstorms can produce deadly tornadoes, like the one that destroyed Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
But the group isn’t riding around in any old vehicle, they’re riding a mesonet truck, which is basically a mobile weather station.
“This vehicle is a research vehicle, so it’s designed to run multiple systems at the same time,” NOAA Severe Storms Laboratory Research Scientist Sean Waugh told AccuWeather National Reporter Jillian Angeline. “We have systems running the observation rack, but we also have sounding systems where we can launch weather balloons out of the back of this.”
In addition to the mesonet truck, the team has an extremely speedy radar called RaXPol on the back of another truck that follows closely behind. This radar spins an entire resolution every 2 seconds when it’s operating to scan for all forms of precipitation and potential tornado debris.
“These new types of technologies, these new radars that can scan really quickly, are something that can provide life-saving information in the future,” University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology Associate Professor, David Bodine, told Angeline.
There are dozens of instruments the group deploys across the area they’re studying—including two eye-catching mobile mesonet trucks.
Technology has completely changed the game of how people chase storms over the past few decades. People now can have real-time information at the click of a button — which is something Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer and Dr. Erik Rasmussen didn’t have when they first started chasing storms. “Actually I had to get a library card at every single library across the southern Plains and to find out where the storms were happening,” Timmer told AccuWeather National Reporter Jillian Angeline in an interview. Rasmussen, of NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory, said the only real technology he had in the field when he first started was AM radio. “I would just tune it to a blank spot on the dial where there was no broadcast and listen for the spherics, the noises that come from the lightning,” Rasmussen told Angeline.
Today, both Rasmussen and Timmer are riding in souped-up mobile mesonet trucks that allow them to have access to real-time information and social media. But, despite all the high-tech gadgets and high-speed data, Timmer and Rasmussen both say the “best piece of technology” never had to be invented. ”I try to use all my senses, my eyes. I try to listen for the tornado, and definitely feel those wind direction shifts,” said Timmer.
From hand plotting and radio tuning, to now riding in high-tech mobile mesonet trucks like this one, Dr. Erik Rasmussen believes chasers have always been motivated to help save lives.
An incredibly hectic year for tornadoes has continued into April, with two tornado outbreaks cracking the top five of 2023. Just last week, on April 19, a total of 23 tornadoes were confirmed across several states. One of the tornadoes was a deadly EF3 tornado that killed three people in the city of Cole, Oklahoma. Earlier in the month, between April 4 and April 5, 28 tornadoes were confirmed across the central United States, including an EF4 tornado that touched down in Keota, Iowa, with maximum sustained winds of 170 mph.
The U.S. has been pummeled by tornadoes in 2023, as 570 tornado reports have come in through Monday, up significantly compared to the historical average to date of 401 tornado reports. Watch the video below to hear AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno discuss the top outbreaks of the year so far.
AccuWeather’s Bernie Rayno looks at the top 5 tornado outbreaks in 2023.
Tornadoes can wreak havoc on communities in minutes, tearing apart some homes and leaving others untouched. But, to determine the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF) rating of a tornado, the National Weather Service (NWS) must conduct a storm survey within 12-48 hours of the twister’s touchdown.
• Gathering data and eyewitness reports: The team collects eyewitness accounts and uses radar data from the time of the event to reconstruct the tornado’s life cycle. While the radar data will give them an approximation of when and where the tornado touched down, eyewitness accounts will help the team determine the time and location a twister struck.
• Determining where a twister ranks on the EF scale: The NWS categorizes tornadoes by a numerical rating, from zero to five, after assessing the twister’s inflicted damage according to the Enhanced Fujita scale. The damage from a low-end tornado, such as an EF0 or EF1, ranges from broken tree limbs and downed power lines to rolled-over mobile homes and uprooted small trees. The damage from a high-end tornado is much more extreme. EF4 and EF5 tornadoes are capable of tearing well-built houses off their foundations and inflicting significant damage to high-rise buildings.
• Issuing a final rating can be a time-consuming process: Depending on the severity of the tornado, a storm survey can take hours, days or even weeks to complete. After completing the survey, the team will issue a Public Information Statement, PNS for short, of the findings. The PNS will state the start and end time of the tornado, the path length and width, what counties it traveled through, how many injuries or fatalities were associated with it, and a summary of the storm. Verifications, such as these post-storm damage surveys, provide valuable information for future forecasts.
When storm surveys are conducted in the aftermath of a damaging tornado, the National Weather Service uses a six-point rating system known as the Enhanced Fujita Scale to determine the storm’s wind speeds and damage. This scale replaced the original Fujita Scale in 2007, with NWS officials saying the EF scale would “reflect better examinations of tornado damage surveys so as to align wind speeds more closely with associated storm damage.”
But how did the original scale come to be in the first place? The history of the Fujita scale, and its creator, Tetsuya “Ted” Fujita, is a tale of one of the most important and well-respected meteorologists of all time. Click here to learn the origin story of Fujita, the man some consider the “father of tornado research.”
Tetsuya "Ted" Fujita was a professor of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. This picture was taken in April 1961.
Tornado destruction has been rampant throughout the United States in 2023, with images capturing the sheer devastation tornadoes can leave behind in a city. Tornadoes ravaged the town of Shawnee, Oklahoma, last week, completely decimating homes along with a high school gymnasium. Houses were also leveled last week in Cole, Oklahoma, where an EF3 tornado left three dead.
Last month, photos captured the destruction in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where over a dozen fatalities occurred due to an EF4 tornado. Other locations where tornadoes struck and left damage behind include Glen Allen, Missouri; Wynne, Arkansas; and Coralville, Iowa.
When severe weather begins to fire up, radar helps to pinpoint the location of damaging tornadoes and quickly warn those in its path. As a thunderstorm rotates and strengthens, a hooklike shape may appear on the edge of the storm when viewed on radar. This hook can become more prominent in an area where a tornado can spawn as the storm intensifies. As a tornado touches down, it can loft objects and debris into the atmosphere, forming a cluster sometimes referred to as a “debris ball.” The presence of both strong rotation and a debris ball in the same area often indicates there is a radar-confirmed tornado occurring.
For Ed Grubb, chasing tornadoes became a family affair during a 2012 chase in central Kansas. “My most memorable chase was when I took my daughter out for her very first storm chase,” Grubb told AccuWeather. “On April 14, 2012, we witnessed the Langley and Solomon, Kansas, tornadoes. It was a great experience for her, and … we will share this memory for a lifetime.”
Video captured by Grubb showed the massive tornadoes in the area, part of an outbreak that produced an EF4 tornado that took a long track through Rice County. The tornado also produced damage consistent with an EF1 tornado in cities like Salina and Lyons.
Storm chaser Ed Grubb shares the most memorable tornado chase of his career.
This is an April 30, 2011 file photo of tornado damage in Tuscaloosa, Ala., following an April 27, 2011 tornado. Monday, July 18 is the final day to apply for federal aid from the tornadoes that ravaged Alabama this past spring. Officials say about 86,000 tornado survivors already have registered for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the time to apply by phone or over the Internet runs out at the end of the day. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
One of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history unfolded from the Gulf Coast states through the Northeast from April 25 through April 28, 2011, an event later dubbed the 2011 Super Outbreak. In those four days, 360 tornadoes were confirmed from Texas to New York, resulting in 321 deaths, 252 of which occurred in Alabama. April 27 was the worst day of the outbreak, with four EF5 tornadoes touching down in the southern U.S.; however, one of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes was an EF4. The Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado on April 27 was on the ground for 91 minutes, caused 60 fatalities and had peak winds of 190 mph. To be classified as an EF5 twister, winds must be at least 200 mph.
“For that kind of situation, you don’t recover in a year, you don’t recover in five years, and in some places people are still struggling today,” Alabama Broadcast Meteorologist James Spann told AccuWeather in 2019. Spann was live on air for severe weather coverage for 10 consecutive hours during the height of the outbreak. The 2011 Super Outbreak has been described as a “generational” event, meaning that a tornado outbreak of this magnitude only happens about once every 40 years. Similar outbreaks occurred in 1974 and 1932.
Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer shares his top 5 most memorable chases of his career.
Extreme meteorologist Reed Timmer has been storm chasing for over 25 years, witnessing firsthand some of the most dangerous twisters in recent memory. As part of AccuWeather’s Tornado Week, Timmer counted down the five most memorable tornadoes of his career. The first one he listed occurred on May 3, 1999, and generated the highest wind speed ever recorded on Earth.
“One of the first-ever tornadoes that I saw…It’s well known as one of the strongest tornadoes to ever be recorded in history,” Timmer said.
Other chases that made the list include a daring intercept in The Dominator, a tornado that took an unusual path, and a twister that formed at the perfect moment to tint its color.
Click here to see the full list of tornadoes.
Tornadoes can occur all throughout the year, with spring being the most active season for severe thunderstorms and the fall bringing a secondary peak. This past January was incredibly busy, finishing as the second-most active January on record in terms of tornado activity. While the Atlantic hurricane season has a statical peak of Sept. 10, is there a similar date for tornado activity in the United States? As it turns out, there is.
An AccuWeather analysis of tornado reports from 1950–2020 found that April, May and June account for half of the tornado reports in the United States. And while April is a traditionally busy month, with significant daily spikes in tornado reports, May is the busiest month for tornadoes. And one day, May 25, stands above the rest. AccuWeather’s data science team found that more than 649 tornadoes had been reported on the day between 1950 and 2020.
It’s been nearly a decade since the last EF5 tornado touched down in the United States on May 20, 2013, in Moore, Oklahoma. At least 24 people died after this powerful twister devastated the city of Moore. The storm flattened and destroyed more than 300 homes, and it left billions of dollars in damages.
This EF5 drought is the longest streak on record. Previously, the record-longest streak between F5/EF5 tornadoes was eight years. This years-long streak spanned from the Moore, Oklahoma, F5 tornado that touched down on May 3, 1999, to the EF5 that nearly wiped out the entire town of Greensburg, Kansas, on May 4, 2007.
EF5 tornadoes have wind speeds greater than 200 mph, making them one of the most ferocious events on the planet. Since 1950, there have only been 59 recorded F5 or EF5 tornadoes in the U.S. The long-term average shapes up to be slightly less than one per year.
If a tornado is approaching, how do you know what’s happening if the only alert you get is in a language you don’t know?
During severe weather, getting warnings to the public as quickly as possible is crucial to saving lives. Nearly all emergency alerts from the National Weather Service (NWS) and FEMA are in English. But for Joseph Trujillo Falcón , who was raised in an immigrant community in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, these life-saving warnings were not in his native language.
“Thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes are some of the things that a lot of Spanish speakers don’t really experience in their native countries,” Trujillo Falcón told AccuWeather’s AccuWeather Senior On-Air Meteorologist Adam Del Rosso during an interview. “So it was a very important thing to be able to translate this information so that people not only know what to do, but also are aware of the hazard.”
With a challenging task at hand, Trujillo Falcón and the NWS translation team worked hard to close this language gap. He says he is “remarkably proud” of the work the team has accomplished recently. Now, if a tornado warning is issued for someone’s area and their phone language is set to Spanish, they will receive the English warning and an automated Spanish language version as well. “It’s a huge victory in our enterprise,” Trujillo Falcón said.
One tornado on its own is enough to devastate a community, but sometimes they spawn in clusters. “Wind shear is the most important ingredient for tornado-producing thunderstorms, and [when] we talk about wind shear, we talk about two factors,” AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said. Those factors are wind speed and changing wind direction. “Increasing wind speed with height — that adds the energy,” Rayno explained. “The changing wind direction with height is what causes the thunderstorm to rotate, which causes the funnel cloud, which causes the tornado.”
Other components needed for a tornado are lift, moisture and instability — all of which must be able to support long-lasting supercells for an outbreak to occur. These conditions are typically found in the central and southeastern U.S., and when they are present over a large area, they can produce a tornado outbreak.
May 25, 2016, was a historic day for north-central Kansas. A tornadic storm produced four tornadoes across the region, including a long-track violent EF4 tornado that grew to over half a mile wide and was on the ground for over an hour. A marginal risk of severe weather had been issued for the area by the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, and the storms ended up producing the most memorable tornado in Aaron Rigsby's storm chasing career.
"It was on the ground for 90 minutes offering multiple close-range intercepts to document this absolutely stunning tornado," Rigsby said.
Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby shares the most memorable tornado chase of his career.
Tornado watch: This means you are "watching" for something to happen. Usually issued a few hours before severe storms could hit a broad area. A watch is used to alert the public of a developing threat for tornadoes where conditions exist for creating tornadoes, but one has not necessarily formed yet. When under a watch, it is important to be prepared and remain vigilant.
Tornado warning: This means forecasters are "warning" you to take action and seek shelter immediately. It is more urgent than a tornado watch. Warnings are issued minutes before a tornado strikes a highly localized area. A tornado is imminent or has been detected on radar.
A simple way to remember the difference between both is using the taco analogy. A watch means the ingredients to make tacos are there, but the taco has not been made yet. A warning means the tacos have been made and are ready right now, eating them is coming very soon.
AccuWeather’s Kristina Shalhoup breaks down the numbers of what has, so far, been a dangerous and busy tornado season with 2023 having the most tornadoes formed on record from January to March.
An incredibly active weather pattern has produced a historic amount of tornadoes since the start of the year. As of April 23, 2023, the number of preliminary tornadoes this year stands at 570, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). This is well above the historical average to date of 347 twisters.
Although March was an active month in terms of severe weather, one day stood out in the history books. A severe weather outbreak on the final day of March spawned at least 162 preliminary tornadoes, according to the NWS. If all of those tornadoes are confirmed, March 31 will have the second-most tornadoes in a day since at least 1950. The only day more extreme was April 27, 2011, when 173 twisters were recorded.
January was also a historically active month in terms of tornadoes. At least 168 preliminary tornadoes touched down during the first month of the year, which is well above the three-year average of 47. This was the second-most active January for tornadoes on record. Only January 1999, which finished with 214 twisters, had more.
Much like a doctor studying an MRI, AccuWeather’s team of expert forecasters frequently examine radar imagery to identify sources of trouble — like menacing tornadoes heading toward a populated area. More than 100 meteorologists that work for the company in its State College, Pennsylvania, global headquarters and severe weather command center in Wichita, Kansas, collaborate to regularly issue life-saving forecasts to warn the public as well as private clients of impending danger. AccuWeather National Reporter Emmy Victor recently went behind the scenes with members of the team in Wichita to learn more about how these pivotal forecasts come together.
When severe weather strikes, AccuWeather’s team of experts works together to provide tornado warnings with an average of 16 minutes of advance notice-more than double the average advance notice of other sources.
To capture the perfect shot, storm chasers must be in the right location at the right time. So even though their alarm clocks might go off at the same time as the average person, their workdays are anything but average.
“Seven o’clock this morning — that’s when we got up and got the car loaded up and we began our 300-mile drive to eastern Iowa,” AccuWeather Meteorologist and Storm Chaser Tony Laubach said.
In the days leading up to this particular storm chase, Laubach and his storm chasing partner, Ed Grub, watched and analyzed weather models to figure out the best place to be to capture the storms. And, in this particular case — it was 300 miles away from their hotel in the southeastern Iowa town of Ottumwa.
“It’s right in front of us dude. It’s crossing the road right now,” says Laubach as he captures the twister on camera. “This is a very large tornado…this is on the ground. You’re seeing this live folks.”
Their chase doesn’t end when the twister lifts up off the ground, though. Laubach and Grub continued to chase the storm until almost midnight before calling it quits for the night.
Storm chaser Tony Laubach shares the daily life of a storm chaser and goes through the nuts and bolts of the dangerous profession that contributes to weather forecasting in order to keep people safe.
A tornado near Keenesburg, Colorado, on June 19, 2018. (AccuWeather/Reed Timmer)
Tornadoes are among the most intense weather phenomenon on Earth, but no two are exactly the same. Meteorologists have a long list of nicknames for tornadoes depending on their size and shape. AccuWeather has condensed this list down to 10 of the most common twisters spotted in the United States when severe weather strikes.
Cone tornadoes are typically the first thing that comes to mind when hearing the word “tornado.” Like an ice cream cone, they become narrower as they extend downward toward the ground. Extremely large tornadoes are known as wedges and are large and powerful enough to flatten an entire town in just a few minutes. On May 31, 2013, a massive wedge tornado touched down near El Reno, Oklahoma. The twister had a width of 2.6 miles, making it the largest tornado in U.S. history.
A large tornado spinning near Morton, Texas, on May 23, 2022. (Marcus Diaz via Storyful)
Extreme storm chaser Aaron Jayjack has been studying and chasing severe weather since the 1990s, but his most memorable chase wasn't just about the tornado he caught. Jayjack chased a tornado in southern Canada while his wife was nine months pregnant with their son.
"I intercepted the most remarkable tornado I've ever seen...My wife gave birth to our son Jet two days later and that week was the most amazing experience in my life," said Jayjack.
Storm chaser Aaron Jayjack shares his most memorable tornado chase of his career.
As thunderstorms strengthened in eastern Nebraska on June 16, 2014, storm chaser Tony Laubach was approaching an intersection near the town of Pilger. Just after 4 p.m. CDT, two violent tornadoes formed near the city.
"We had two EF4 tornadoes on the ground on either side of the highway as we were driving east," Laubach described.
Laubach and his team witnessed six tornadoes that day, four of which were EF4 strength. The two Pilger tornadoes resulted in 20 injuries and two deaths.
Storm chaser Tony Laubach shares his most memorable tornado chase of his career.
Visit www.accuweather.com/tornadoweek to follow along with coverage.
AccuWeather will present Tornado Week from April 24-28, providing never-before-seen glimpses at a day in the life of storm chasers, who hunt for some of the most powerful and destructive storms on Earth. Storm chasers will also recap their top chases and provide the stories behind wild storm footage that they captured. Also, survivors will share their incredible stories of riding out tornadoes.
AccuWeather’s top experts will break down what goes into predicting tornadoes and take a look at the tornadoes of tomorrow. Is Tornado Alley shifting? We’ll answer that and much more in Tornado Week, and you can follow along with coverage on the AccuWeather Network and right here on AccuWeather.com.
AccuWeather will present Tornado Week April 24-28, providing never-before-seen glimpses at a day in the life of storm chasers and their top chases. Plus, we’ll take a look at tornadoes of the future.
