Tornadoes, in my opinion, are one of nature’s most fascinating phenomena. They come in all shapes, sizes, and intensities and occur all around the world. The United States is responsible for a good portion of these tornadoes, with a large amount being in Dixie Alley and Tornado Alley.

Throughout the creation of this list, I kept a running list of sources and additional articles and listed them below each tornado event. I want to thank Jennifer Narramore in assisting finding articles for a couple of these tornadoes.

All tornadoes listed here come from the Storm Prediction Center’s tornado database.

#10: A 4-way tie: 1.70 miles

Location	Date	Path Length (mi)	Strength	Injuries	Fatalities
Edmonson, KS	5/31/1968	5.00	F2	0	0
Kentucky	4/2/1977	11.60	F1	0	0
Daytona Beach, FL	8/13/2004	2.00	F1	0	0
Greensburg, KS	5/4/2007	28.81	EF5	63	11

Edmonson, TX

This tornado started just to the north of Edmonson, Texas and only moved 5 miles. During it’s (relatively) short journey, the tornado grew to 1.70 miles but only bringing F2 damage.

Kentucky

This tornado moved through Boone and Kenton counties. Out of the 15 tornadoes recorded on this day, this one had the 3rd longest path. A tornado up in Michigan had a path length of 16.6 miles, while another had a path length of 12.4 miles. Both of these tornadoes were rated F4.

Daytona Beach, FL

This tornado occurred in a scenario that is unlike any on this list: during Hurricane Charley. Charley was the second major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season, making landfall as a category 4 hurricane. Charley was the third costliest hurricane at the time, trailing Katrina and Andrew.

Additional information: NWS Summary of Hurricane Charley

Greensburg, KS

Almost every meteorologist and chaser knows or has heard about this tornado, primarily because it was not only one of the 59 (at the time of writing) F/EF5 tornadoes, but also because of it’s impacts. This was the first EF-5 tornado to be recorded since the implementation of the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale (which was implemented in February 2007). This unfortunately was a very devastating tornado to the Greensburg community.

Articles and NWS summary on this tornado: US Tornadoes, NWS

9. Yazoo City, MS: 1.75 miles

| Date | Path Length (mi) | Strength | Injuries | Fatalities | :———:|:—————-:|:——–:|:——–:|:———-:| | 4/24/2010 | 148.97 | EF-4 | 148 | 10 |

This tornado started west of Talulah, LA and trekked almost 150 miles to the northeast. The tornado dissipated north of Sturgis, MS, leaving behind widespread damage. It reached it’s widest point and maximum intensity at 170mph as it moved through the south side of Yazoo City. Currently, it is the widest tornado on record in the state of Mississippi and holds the 4th spot in the longest tornado paths in Mississippi. The longest path is from 1953 when an F2 tornado began in Louisiana at 234 miles, with the Candlestick, MS F5 tornado trailing behind it at a path length of 202 miles.

Articles: NWS Summary, MS Tornado Track records

8. Sulpher, OK: 1.76 miles

| Date | Path Length (mi) | Strength | Injuries | Fatalities | :———:|:—————-:|:——–:|:——–:|:———-:| | 5/9/2016 | 13.80 | EF-3 | 2 | 0 |

Before this tornado, a very violent EF-4 tornado approached Wynnewood, OK. There was also a rare anticyclonic tornado as this one was in progress west of Roff, Oklahoma. The anticyclonic tornado was rated EF-1 with peak winds estimated at 110MPH. From NWS Norman’s storm summary page, there were 7 tornadoes in their CWA and 12 tornadoes in total.

Personal account: I was able to witness this tornado in person. I was part of a project titled TWIRL: Tornadic Winds In-situ and Radar observations at the Low levels with the Center for Severe Weather Research. Moments before, a very violent EF-4 tornado was destroying everything in it’s path. We deployed all but one pod on the tornado, but ended up missing due to the fact that it didn’t take the northward turn when we expected it to. We dropped our final pod in front of this tornado about 20 minutes after. The pod took a direct hit and the anemometer was ripped off. The pod recorded a 1 second max wind of 112mph, and a 3 second max of 90mph.

Additional links/NWS event summary: US Tornadoes, NWS

Articles about TWIRL: Digital Trends, Success Magazine, National Science Foundation (NSF)

7. Bucklin, KS: 1.80 miles

| Date | Path Length (mi) | Strength | Injuries | Fatalities | :———:|:—————-:|:——–:|:——–:|:———-:| | 5/23/2008 | 20.90 | EF-3 | 0 | 0 |

On this day, 71 tornadoes were recorded across western Kansas. Out of these tornadoes, 18% (13 tornadoes) of them had a width greater than or equal to one mile. Thankfully, this mean-looking velocity signature on this tornado was located out mainly over farm land. No cities were impacted from the tornado directly.

During the same outbreak sequence 2 days later, an EF-5 tornado struck Parkersburg, IA, killing 9 and injuring 70, leaving behind millions of dollars in damage.

Mike Umscheid and Jeff Hutton (NWS Dodge City) made a presentation about this outbreak and presented it at the 12th High Plains Conference in Hays, KS back in 2008. This power point can be found here.

6. Lindale, TX: 1.83 miles

| Date | Path Length (mi) | Strength | Injuries | Fatalities | :———:|:—————-:|:——–:|:——–:|:———-:| | 4/29/2016 | 25.94 | EF-2 | 2 | 0 |

This was one of several tornadoes that occurred during the outbreak in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Mississippi. In addition to the outbreak, there were reports of flooding in Lindale and western Louisiana. A CoCoRaHs station in Lindale recorded 6.17″ of precipitation from 4/29 to 4/30.

Link to event summary: NWS

5. Moshannon State Forest, PA: 1.89 miles

| Date | Path Length (mi) | Strength | Injuries | Fatalities | :———:|:—————-:|:——–:|:——–:|:———-:| | 5/31/1985 | 69.00 | F-4 | 0 | 0 |

This tornado is fairly significant in Pennsylvania tornado history. It holds the record as the longest tracked and widest tornado in the state. Running behind it, record wise, are two tornadoes that occurred same day: Atlantic, PA (F4; path length: 56 miles) and Kane, PA (F4; 1000 yards wide). This day ended up producing 7 F4 tornadoes and 1 F5 that tracked from Niles, OH into western PA. This is the only F/EF5 tornado that Pennsylvania has experienced.

Links to articles relating to this tornado: US Tornadoes, NWS, NWS 30 year anniversary, Weather History: BDMWeather

4. Pardeeville/Cambria, WI: 2.00 miles

| Date | Path Length (mi) | Strength | Injuries | Fatalities | :———:|:—————-:|:——–:|:——–:|:———-:| | 6/7/2008 | 8.63 | EF-2 | 2 | 0 |

With an estimated peak wind of 120mph and a width of 2 miles, a Wisconsin tornado makes it into the top 10 widest tornadoes. There were a total of 13 tornadoes that occurred this day, most of which were EF-0’s. This event was a historical event for Wisconsin, as it overtook the number of tornadoes that occurred on August 9, 1979 with respect to the top 10 tornado days. This event was the 6th most active day in Wisconsin history, with the #1 day bringing 27 tornadoes in total (August 18, 2005).

Link relating to this tornado: NWS

3. Greensburg, KS: 2.20 miles

| Date | Path Length (mi) | Strength | Injuries | Fatalities | :———:|:—————-:|:——–:|:——–:|:———-:| | 5/4/2007 | 23.50 | EF-3 | 1 | 0 |

This tornado is not to be confused with the Greensburg EF5. This tornado was associated with a different mesocyclone trailing the devastating and well-known EF5 tornado. There was only one reported injury associated with this tornado and an estimated property loss camping at approximately $1.5 million. It was during this outbreak when the 4th high risk was issued since the implementation of the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

2. Hallam, NE: 2.50 miles

| Date | Path Length (mi) | Strength | Injuries | Fatalities | :———:|:—————-:|:——–:|:——–:|:———-:| | 5/22/2004 | 54.00 | F-4 | 38 | 1 |

Several tornado outbreaks occurred during the latter half of May 2004. On May 22, a moderate risk was issued by the Storm Prediction center. A total of 70 tornadoes were confirmed for this day. The strongest out of these tornadoes was an F4 that passed to the south the small town with a population of 213 (per 2010 census). The tornado brought F2 and F3 damage to Hallam – multiple well-built homes were demolished, along with multiple farm sheds and trees. The F4 damage thankfully remained to the south of Hallam.

NWS Links: Summary, Radar/Damage Photos, and [Damage Survey] Text(https://www.weather.gov/oax/hallam-tor)

1. El-Reno, OK: 2.60 miles

| Date | Path Length (mi) | Strength | Injuries | Fatalities | :———:|:—————-:|:——–:|:——–:|:———-:| | 5/31/2013 | 16.20 | EF-3 | 26 | 8 |

Before debates begin about the rating of the tornado, let’s highlight the impact that this tornado had on the meteorological community. Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young lost their lives to this tornado while conducting research with the TWISTEX project. These were respected people within the meteorological community trying to further knowledge of the life cycle of a tornado – from birth to decay.

Just like the Greensburg tornado at #10, almost every meteorologist and chaser has at least heard about this tornado and the impact on the meteorological community. The tornado spared the city of El-Reno and it’s airport by remaining to the south and taking a “u” shape path (as seen with the graphic on the left). I believe it’s fair to say that this tornado was a monster.

Articles: Weather History – BDMWeather, NWS Summary

Data sources: SPC’s tornado database and various articles listed below each section (NWS, US Tornadoes, etc.)