US Tornadoes

Map of USA

Here we are supplying information about the locations of tornadoes that have occurred in every state in the USA.

Move your mouse over the map to see the state name and FIPS number (Federal Information Processing Standard). Click on the state name or use the drop-down menu to navigate to your state of interest.

From there you can find data on each county. You will find the tornado ID number, the date, the event number, the time, the number of deaths and/or injuries, the F-Scale or EF-Scale, and the map coordinates. You can even copy the beginning and ending set of map coordinates into Google maps to see the path that the tornado took.

We are making this available for a variety of purposes, which include the following:

to assist students in the creation of reports for science, social studies, or other classes.
to aid individuals who are putting together family histories in which tornadoes have played a part.
to inform individuals who are interested in researching the tornadoes that have struck their communities.
to feed the interests of weather enthusiasts for which tornadoes hold an endless fascination.

We offer this information in hopes that you will then use the microfilm or bound volumes of your newspapers to seek out detailed information on each tornado. We do not intend to provide descriptions at this time. In the future, additional information will be provided in another format. The intent here is to get students and severe storm enthusiasts started on their own research projects. For many people, the lack of dates and counties are the biggest stumbling block to creating a report or completing a research effort. That will no longer be a problem.

The information for the USA is provided in this format, after the county name: the tornado ID number, date, official event number for that year in that state, time of day in Central Standard time, death(s), injury(ies), F-scale or EF-scale, map coordinates, and county FIPS number. In general, all counties are odd-numbered.

To research the tornadoes that interest you, go to the library in a town where a newspaper is published, or, if the tornado occurred in the distant past, find out if a newspaper was published there in the past. Or if really ambitious, to the state historical library in the capital city of the state or province. Bring with you the tornado dates, and ask for the microfilm of the newspaper for those dates. Get a lesson on how the microfilm projector works. Some libraries will not have microfilm, but will have the original newpapers in bound volumes. Treat them with the utmost care and respect so that they will be around for future use by people in years to come. If a tornado occurred on April 5th , and the newspaper is a daily, then April 6th, 7th and 8th should be the issues with information and stories. If the newspaper is a weekly, then you search for one or two weeks after the tornado. Some state historical libraries have tens of thousands of microfilm reels, with archives of hundreds of newspapers, dating back 100 years or more. This microfilm archive is a gold mine of tornado information if you know the county and the date. And now you do.
Happy hunting!

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