List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks


These are some notable tornadoes, tornado outbreaks, and tornado outbreak sequences that have occurred in North America.
  1. The listing is U.S.-centric, with greater and more consistent information available for U.S. tornadoes. Some North American outbreaks affecting the U.S. may only include tornado information from the U.S.
  2. Exact death and injury counts are not possible, especially for large events and events before 1955.
  3. Prior to 1950 in the United States, only significant tornadoes are listed for the number of tornadoes in outbreaks.
  4. Due to increasing detection, particularly in the U.S., numbers of counted tornadoes have increased markedly in recent decades although number of actual tornadoes and counted significant tornadoes has not. In older events, the number of tornadoes officially counted is likely underestimated.
  5. Historical context: Much of the tornado activity in the American Midwestern area is relatively unknown and significantly under-reported prior to the middle of the 1800s as few people lived there to record the yearly activity outside of Native Americans whom did not keep much, if any written records. The American government did not acquire the Midwestern states area until the 1803 Louisiana Purchase from the French government. The Louisiana Purchase area included major tornado activity areas of north Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, and lower Minnesota. Large groups of settlers and pioneers only began populating there as the American government began organizing this acquired territory during the 1820-1860s. The other areas east of the Mississippi River and west of the original thirteen colonies that have more frequent tornado activity of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama didn't begin having larger groups of settlers populating these areas until the earlier 1800s. As these areas began being more populated, existing tornado activity there became more known and reported through newspaper and telegraph.

    United States

1643-1859

1860s

1870s

1880s

1890s

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Canada

Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, and other areas