Tornado Central

The 10 Deadliest Tornadoes in U.S. History

#10: June 8, 1953 Flint, Mich. (116 Deaths)

According to the Storm Prediction Center, 15 tornadoes in U.S. history have killed 100 or more people. On the following pages, we have a look back at the 10 deadliest U.S. tornadoes, starting with the 1953 Flint, Mich. tornado.

A half-mile wide F5 tornado struck the northern Flint community of Beecher on June 8, 1953, killing 116 people and injuring 844.

The tornado was on the ground for 27 miles and destroyed 340 homes. The majority of the deaths, 113 total, were concentrated along a four-mile stretch of Coldwater Road.

Until the Joplin, Mo. tornado of May 22, 2011, it was the last single tornado to kill more than 100 people in the U.S. Seven other killer tornadoes touched down the same day as the Flint tornado, pushing the death toll for the day up to 141.

#9: June 12, 1899 New Richmond, Wis. (117 Deaths)

Image credit: Library of Congress — Photograph of the tornado damage in New Richmond, Wis. This is one portion of a panoramic photo from the Library of Congress.

With the Gollmar Brothers Circus in New Richmond, Wis. on the day of this tornado, a larger number of people were in town than usual.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Milwaukee says the tornado moved into Wisconsin as a waterspout on Lake St. Croix and headed toward New Richmond. Before hitting the town, three people were killed on farms near Burkhardt and Boardman.

Not long after the circus ended, the tornado carved a path through the middle of New Richmond. About 300 buildings were damaged or destroyed along a path 3,000 feet long and 1,000 feet wide.

Flying debris from the tornado killed many of the 117 people, and 26 separate families had multiple deaths. Six of those 26 families had four deaths or more.

The NWS says the tornado was easy to spot and that this may have kept the total number of deaths from being higher.

#8: April 24, 1908 Amite, La. and Purvis, Miss. (143 Deaths)

Weather map from April 24, 1908 at 8 a.m. showing the storm system that sparked the tornado outbreak. Image credit: NOAA

An outbreak of tornadoes struck from Louisiana to Georgia in late April 1908, killing at least 324 people.

One single tornado was responsible for about 44 percent of the deaths as it moved from near Weiss, La. to Wayne County, Mississippi.

A total of 143 people were killed and 800 were injured along the entire 160-mile long path of the tornado. The tornado was estimated to be F4 intensity and reportedly had a damage path up to two miles wide.

Amite, La. (29 deaths) and Purvis, Miss. (50 deaths) were hit the hardest. Only seven of the 150 homes in Purvis were left standing.

Given the number of deaths and the amount of damage left behind, the Storm Prediction Center says that the outbreak helped revive interest in documenting tornado outbreaks. During the 1890s and early 1900s, documenting tornadoes became a low priority after the U.S. Weather Bureau was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

#7: May 22, 2011 Joplin, Mo. (158 Deaths)

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Joplin, Mo.
The EF-5 tornado was powerful enough to wrap this heavy-duty hauling vehicle around a tree. (Image: weather.com/Tornado Hunt)

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Joplin, Mo.
The EF-5 tornado was powerful enough to wrap this heavy-duty hauling vehicle around a tree. (Image: weather.com/Tornado Hunt)

A mile-wide EF5 tornado, with peak winds over 200 mph, tore a six-mile long gash through the heart of Joplin, Mo. on the afternoon of May 22, 2011.

The tornado killed a total of 158 people, according to the Storm Prediction Center. This was the highest U.S. death toll from a single tornado since 1947.

About 7,500 residential dwellings were damaged, affecting more than 17,000 people. Over 15,000 vehicles including buses, vans, and semis were tossed up to several blocks away, either crushed, rolled into balls, or wrapped around trees beyond recognition. Some owners never found their vehicles.

Even when correcting past U.S. tornadoes for inflation, the Joplin tornado became the costliest single tornado in U.S. history ($2.8 billion).

#6: April 9, 1947 Woodward, Okla. (181 Deaths)

The only house left standing in Glazier, Texas. Image credit: National Weather Service in Amarillo, Texas.

After starting near Canadian, Texas, this tornado tracked about 100 miles before ending west of Alva, Okla. on April 9, 1947. Along its path, 181 people were killed.

Before reaching the Oklahoma border, 69 people were killed in the Texas Panhandle. The towns of Glazier and Higgins were devastated.

After entering Oklahoma, the tornado traveled through mostly rural areas on a path towards Woodward, where 100 city blocks on the west and north sides of the city were destroyed. A total of 107 people were killed and an 1,000 were injured.

#5: April 6, 1936 Gainesville, Ga. (203 Deaths)

Two tornadoes – one from the west, the other from the southwest – merged over Gainesville, Ga. on the morning of April 6, 1936. A total of 203 people were killed as the tornado left behind a four-block wide path of destruction.

Buildings collapsed as the central business district was almost leveled, including the county courthouse. The collapse and fire of the Cooper Pants factory killed dozens. Forty people were never found, and are officially deemed as missing.

A day before the Gainesville tornado, the fourth deadliest tornado in history struck another southern city.

#4: April 5, 1936 Tupelo, Miss. (216 Deaths)

A day before the Gainesville, Ga. tornado in 1936, another violent tornado killed 216 people near Tupelo, Miss.

The tornado moved through the north side of the city on the evening of April 5, destroying 200 homes and killing entire families along a half-mile wide path.

It's estimated that the tornado was on the ground for 15 miles and did $3 million in damage.

#3: May 27, 1896 St. Louis, Mo. (255 Deaths)

The nearly-flattened Union Depot Railway Company in St. Louis, Mo. following the May 27, 1896 tornado. (Photo credit: NOAA Library)

The May 27, 1896 St. Louis tornado killed 255 people, making it the third deadliest in history.

This massive tornado moved from Tower Grove Park into downtown St. Louis, then crossed the Mississippi River and carved through East St. Louis, on May 27, 1896.

Over 8,800 buildings were either damaged or destroyed. The Eads Bridge lost about 300 feet of its eastern approach, but otherwise survived. After an 1871 tornado damaged its superstructure on its eastern abutment, the bridge was rebuilt to be "tornado-proof."

The tornado was estimated to be F4 intensity and ranks as the second worst tornado in history.

#2: May 7, 1840 Natchez, Miss. (317 Deaths)

The second deadliest tornado in history struck Natchez, Miss. about 20 years before the Civil War started.

After first touching down about 20 miles southwest of Natchez, the tornado hugged the Mississippi River, hit Natchez Landing, then came ashore and tore through the city itself. It's estimated the tornado was F5 intensity.

Of the 317 official deaths, reliable reports suggest 269 of those perished as flatboats were sunk. This death toll may be forever underestimated, as fatalities from slaves were not counted in that era.

#1: March 18, 1925 Tri-State Tornado (695 Deaths)

Along its estimated 219-mile long path, the Tri-State tornado killed 695 people from southern Missouri to southern Illinois and southwest Indiana on March 18, 1925. In Murphysboro, Ill. alone, 234 fatalities occurred.

The tornado was on the ground for about three and a half hours and moved at an average speed of 62 mph.

At least 19 separate communities were affected. Gorham, Ill. and Griffin, Ind. were destroyed. Annapolis, Mo. and Parrish, Ill. were 90 percent destroyed. Parrish was never rebuilt and became, in essence, a tornado ghost town. In all, it was estimated that 15,000 homes were demolished.

The Tri-State tornado ranks as the worst in U.S. history, according to Dr. Greg Forbes, severe weather expert with The Weather Channel.