Tornado Central

How Fast Do Tornadoes Move? It Depends - Highway Speeds To A Snail's Pace.

Tornadoes can have extreme differences in how fast they move. Past history shows they can move as fast as traffic on an interstate, or as slow as someone taking a walk.

Midwest, South: Severe Outbreak Possible Midweek

Tornadoes are widely known to come in various sizes and strengths, but the speed at which they travel on the ground can also vary greatly, with some moving at highway speeds and others taking a slow crawl.

(MORE: What Meteorologists Call Different Types Of Tornadoes)

Big Picture: Typical Tornado Forward Speeds

Detailed statistics aren't available, but NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) says a typical tornado moves at about 10 to 20 mph. A National Weather Service severe weather preparedness guide mentions the average forward speed is around 30 mph.

So in general, you can think of most tornadoes moving around the speed limit posted in most subdivisions.

A large cone tornado in Tipton, Kansas, on May 28, 2019.
(NOAA)

Some Move At Highway Speeds

Tornadoes in an environment that favors fast storm movements can travel up to 60 mph in some cases. This setup usually involves a strong jet stream that forces the tornado's parent storm to track quickly.

One recent example of a fast-moving tornado is the December 2021 EF4 that hit Mayfield, Kentucky, which had an average forward speed of 56 mph. That's based on it tracking 165.7 miles over 178 minutes, or nearly 3 hours.

During the 1974 Super Outbreak, an F5 tornado that hit Guin, Alabama, traveled at a forward speed of 75 mph.

Destruction in Mayfield, Kentucky, following the Dec. 10, 2021, EF4 tornado.
(National Weather Service Storm Survey)

Others Can Move At A Crawl Or Take Erratic Paths

NOAA says some tornadoes can be so slow to move that they are nearly stationary at times.

One such famous example among meteorologists is the May 28, 2013, EF3 tornado that hit near Bennington, Kansas.

The twister traveled just 2.33 miles for an hour, and appeared to stop in place at times. Its average forward speed overall was 2.3 mph, partially the result of the slow-moving low-pressure system that helped spawn the tornado.

This tornado is also an example of the erratic paths some tornadoes have taken in history. It made a loop by first moving southeast, then turning north, before eventually tracking back to the southwest.

The strange path of the May 28, 2013, tornado near Bennington, Kansas. The red triangle shows where the tornado began.
(National Weather Service)

Nearly 70% of tornadoes across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. from 1980 to 2002 moved in some sort of east or northeast direction, according to a 2006 study by Philip W. Suckling of Texas State University–San Marcos and Walker S. Ashley of Northern Illinois University. The breakdown included 21.6% that traveled east, 26.2% that tracked east-northeast and 21.5% that moved northeast.

Far fewer tornadoes moved southeast (3.2%), east-southeast (7%), north-northeast (8.1%) and north (4.5%), the study noted. Tornadoes moving in some type of westerly direction from the east were extremely rare.

Chris Dolce has been a senior digital meteorologist with weather.com for nearly 15 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.