STORM2K

The 2008 severe weather season has been one for the record books thus far. Not only are we quickly closing in on the yearly average but we're also fastly approaching the record for most tornadoes in a single season as well. Keep in mind, it's only June!

Most tornadoes are the weak EF0 - EF1's that last for only a couple of minutes and do very minimum damage. But this year has been much different. Thus far we have seen an unprecedented amount of violent tornadoes strike numerous states stretching from the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys to the Central Plains. A violent tornado is that of EF3 caliber or greater.

Below is a list of states that have seen a violent tornado this year followed by the cites and counties within that state that have been directly impacted.

ENHANCED FUJITA SCALE:
EF0 65-85 mph
EF1 86-110 mph
EF2 111-135 mph
EF3 136-165 mph
EF4 166-200 mph
EF5 Over 200 mph

Check out the stats here: 2008 Tornado Count

Idk if NJ has ever had any over EF-3 EVER.

Texas isn't anywhere on that list. Funny that people still think we're the tornado capital of the world or something.

1 for me

And one for me.

Five for Mississippi.

Since the list was last updated June 1, you can add an additional..

1 EF3 in IN (June 3 - Moscow tornado)
1 EF3 in MN (June 6)
1 EF3 in IA (June 11 - Little Sioux Camp tornado)
2 EF3's in KS (June 11 - Chapman and Salina)
1 EF4 in KS (June 11 - Manhattan)

Too many to count.

I would actually like to know Florida's strongest tornado. I don't recall a single F5, or, really, even an F4 ever.

somethingfunny wrote:Texas isn't anywhere on that list. Funny that people still think we're the tornado capital of the world or something.

Texas is the "tornado capital" but we don't have the same number of supercell type storms that produce the more violent tornados as other states do. Believe it or not, Harris County, TX(Houston) is the county that has the highest number of tornados on average(saw an article the other day), but most of those are the lower end EF0-EF3 category. Only one EF4 has his this county to date.

Cyclone1 wrote:I would actually like to know Florida's strongest tornado. I don't recall a single F5, or, really, even an F4 ever.

If this link I found is right, there was a f4 back in 1958 on April 15th in Polk county. Also on April 4th in 1966 looks like a F4 tracked through Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk counties. Looks like a lot of people were injured and some killed in that one too, 450 injured in Polk county alone. And looking at the list we've seen quite a few F3's in the past as well, you don't usually think about tornadoes in Florida but this list makes you think otherwise. And this list only goes from 1950-1995.

http://www.tornadoproject.com/alltorns/fltorn.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Tampa_tornado_family

From Wiki: Two tornadoes affected the region, each of which featured a path length in excess of 100 miles (160 km). One of the tornadoes produced estimated F4 damage on the Fujita scale; it remains one of only two F4 tornadoes to strike the U.S. state of Florida, the other of which occurred in 1958

Notice how the southern states are leading the pack by far in the number of EF3 and above tornadoes. Seven out of ten states are Dixie belt states.....MGC

MGC wrote:Notice how the southern states are leading the pack by far in the number of EF3 and above tornadoes. Seven out of ten states are Dixie belt states.....MGC

Yep. It was an insanely rough start to the year in the South.. one to remember.

vbhoutex wrote:

somethingfunny wrote:Texas isn't anywhere on that list. Funny that people still think we're the tornado capital of the world or something.

Texas is the "tornado capital" but we don't have the same number of supercell type storms that produce the more violent tornados as other states do. Believe it or not, Harris County, TX(Houston) is the county that has the highest number of tornados on average(saw an article the other day), but most of those are the lower end EF0-EF3 category. Only one EF4 has his this county to date.

Yeah, but one thing to remember when looking at tornado statistics for major cities is any tornado is going to get noticed and reported which can sometimes skew the results. That being said, I still think Oklahoma County, Oklahoma is one of the world's tornado hot spots.

Well here in the UK we don't normally get strong tornadoes as we tend to get the 'cold' type tornadoes on frontal systems. The strongest ever tornado the UK had was an F4 which is quite impressive.
We have had a few EF2's in recent years (Indeed it may have breifly been upto EF3 strength), one hit Birmingham the other hit a suburb of London which was also a EF2.

Biggest ever tornado outbreak was in 1981 with 105 though most were weak.

Only 1 ever in Utah, far away from any major populated areas.

bob rulz wrote:Only 1 ever in Utah, far away from any major populated areas.

The Salt Lake City one was pretty crazy though.