A map of the tornado paths in the 1974 Super Outbreak
This article lists various tornado records. The most "extreme" tornado in recorded history was the Tri-State tornado, which spread through parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925. It is considered an F5 on the Fujita Scale, even though tornadoes were not ranked on any scale at the time. It holds records for longest path length at 219 miles (352 km), longest duration at about 3+1⁄2 hours, and it held the fastest forward speed for a significant tornado at 73 mph (117 km/h) anywhere on Earth until 2021 (the unofficial world record is held by the 2014 Pilger, Nebraska EF4, with forward speed reaching exactly 94.6 mph (152.2 km/h)). In addition, it is the deadliest single tornado in United States history with 695 fatalities.[1] It was also the third most costly tornado in history at the time, but has been surpassed by several others when non-normalized. When costs are normalized for wealth and inflation, it still ranks third today.[2]
The deadliest tornado in world history was the Daulatpur–Saturia tornado in Bangladesh on April 26, 1989, which killed approximately 1,300 people.[3] In the history of Bangladesh, at least 19 tornadoes killed more than 100 people each, almost half of the total for the world.
For 37 years, the most extensive tornado outbreak on record in almost every category was the 1974 Super Outbreak, which affected a large area of the central United States and extreme southern Ontario in Canada on April 3 and April 4, 1974. Not only did this outbreak feature 148 tornadoes in only 18 hours, but an unprecedented number of them were violent; 7 were of F5 intensity and 23 were F4. During the peak of this outbreak, there were 16 tornadoes on the ground at the same time. More than 300 people, possibly as many as 330, were killed by tornadoes during this outbreak. However, this record was later broken during the 2011 Super Outbreak, which resulted in 360 tornadoes and 324 tornadic fatalities.[4] However, the most tornadoes spawned in the shortest amount of time is 104 over 5 hours and 26 minutes, during the 1981 United Kingdom tornado outbreak on 23 November 1981.
^Grazulis, Thomas P. (July 1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680–1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. ISBN 1-879362-03-1.
^Brooks, Harold E.; Doswell, Charles A III (September 2000). "Normalized Damage from Major Tornadoes in the United States: 1890–1999". Retrieved 2007-02-28.
^Paul, Bhuiyan (2004). "The April 2004 Tornado in North-Central Bangladesh: A Case for Introducing Tornado Forecasting and Warning Systems" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-08-23. Retrieved 2006-08-17.
^Hoxit, Lee R; Chappell, Charles F (October 1975). "Tornado Outbreak of April 3–4, 1974; Synoptic Analysis" (PDF). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2007-03-02.
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