12 Extreme Facts About Tornadoes

Tornadoes are among the most violent winds on Earth, capable of unthinkable destruction in a matter of seconds. Sometimes unpredictable, these incredible weather phenomena are responsible for some of the most extreme impacts on the planet.

Here are 12 such examples.

(MORE: Latest News on the Deadly Southern Tornado Outbreak)

1. Widest Damage Path

On May 31, 2013, the deadly El Reno tornado tore 16 miles of destruction through central Oklahoma. According to mobile radar estimates, this enormous multi-vortex tornado expanded to a record 2.6 miles wide as it passed south of El Reno. That's equal in distance to more than 45 football fields.

Damage from extreme winds expanded well behind that radius, which made it difficult to estimate the distance without the help of the University of Oklahoma RaXPol radar.

2. Strongest Winds Ever Recorded

On May 3, 1999, a large, violent tornado leveled southern sections of the Oklahoma City metro area. The tornado produced a large swath of F4/F5 damage and killed 36 people.

A mobile doppler radar unit (Doppler on Wheels) used for research was able to get close enough to this tornado to record a wind speed of 318 mph at a height about 100 feet above the ground when it was near Bridge Creek.

Of course, we must caveat that wind speeds have only been recorded in a small fraction of tornadoes in history, which makes it possible that another tornado in the past could have had higher winds.

3. Most Tornadoes in an Outbreak

The April 26-28, 2011 "Superoutbreak" holds the record for the most tornadoes from a single outbreak. At least 349 tornadoes touched down across 21 states in the three days combined.

April 27 was the peak day with nearly 200 tornadoes confirmed. Four of those tornadoes were rated EF5, the highest rating possible. Swaths of Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Cullman, Alabama; Birmingham, Alabama; Hackleburg, Alabama; Smithville, Mississippi; Ringgold, Georgia and Cleveland, Tennessee were leveled.

A total of 324 people were killed and 2,775 were injured.

4. Most Tornadoes in a Month

A record 758 tornadoes were confirmed in April 2011, which easily beat the previous record of 542 tornadoes in May 2003.

The late-April "Superoutbreak" was roughly 39 percent of this monthly total. However, the month was packed full of several other major outbreaks in the Midwest and South from start to finish. This includes tornadoes that impacted both St. Louis and Raleigh.

5. Most Tornadoes in a Year

The record for the most tornadoes in a single year was set in 2004, when 1,817 tornadoes were confirmed.

May was especially active that year, with 509 tornadoes – roughly double the 30-year average for the month. Tornadoes spawned by several landfalling tropical storms and hurricanes led to a record number of tornadoes for the months of August (179) and September (297).

6. Most Tornadoes from a Tropical Storm or Hurricane

In addition to causing extensive damage along the Florida and Alabama Gulf coasts in September 2004, Hurricane Ivan also went on to produce significant inland impacts that included flooding and tornadoes.

Altogether, Ivan spawned a total of 118 tornadoes from Florida to Pennsylvania, which stands as the most ever recorded from a tropical storm or a hurricane.

(MORE: 5 Hurricanes That Produced the Most Tornadoes)

7. Single State Tornado Record

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The April 2011 "Superoutbreak" was also responsible for setting this record. A total of 72 tornadoes touched down in Tennessee on April 27, 2011, which is the highest number of tornadoes in a single calendar day for any state in the country.

Incidentally, 62 tornadoes tore through Alabama on that infamous April day.

8. Costliest Tornado

With a total cost of $2.8 billion, the Joplin, Missouri, tornado of May 22, 2011 is the most expensive on record.

The EF5 tornado with winds in excess of 200 mph carved a three-quarter- to one-mile-wide path through southern sections of the city, claiming 158 lives. A survey of the damage by the National Weather Service in Springfield, Missouri, estimated nearly 7,000 homes were destroyed.

9. Longest Tornado Track

The Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925 carved an estimated 219-mile-long path from southeast Missouri to southern Illinois and southwest Indiana.

However, The Weather Channel severe weather expert Dr. Greg Forbes said new research suggests that there may have been some gaps in the path, and this may not have been a single tornado. As a result, this record is under further review.

10. Deadliest Tornado

In addition to having the longest known path, the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925 is also the deadliest on record.

A total of 695 people were killed from southeast Missouri to southern Illinois and southwest Indiana. In Murphysboro, Illinois, alone, 234 people were killed, which is the single highest tornado death toll for any city in the United States.

(MORE: Top 10 Worst Tornadoes)

11. Highest-Elevation Tornado

It is a common myth that tornadoes cannot climb or cross mountains.

On July 7, 2004, a hiker photographed a tornado doing just that at 12,000 feet in Sequoia National Park, California.

12. Fastest-Moving Tornado

This record is a little trickier to track down due to the slew of estimates in tornado records. Officially, the fastest-moving tornado was the Tri-State Tornado in 1925 with a forward speed of 73 mph, but it is very likely some tornadoes move faster than this.

"In general, the fastest speeds may be with hurricane-related tornadoes," said Forbes. "I expect that 75- to 90-mph speed is in the right ballpark."

Some tornadoes as recent as the Jan. 21-23, 2017 outbreak had short forward speed bursts of 80-90 mph.

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