Top Five Deadliest US Tornadoes: The Worst Twisters Ever Recorded in the United States

Hundreds of tornadoes are recorded every year in the US and by luck; most of them do not cause major damage or death. Unfortunately, there have been several tornadoes that have wiped out towns and cities. Most of them were rated as F5 and F4 on the Fujita scale. The following is a list of the top five tornadoes recorded in the United States:

Missouri, Illinois and Indiana were all affected by the Tri-State tornado. The funnel first touched ground in Ellington Missouri and headed eastward through Annapolis, Leadanna, Lixville, Biehle and Frohna. As the tornado left the Ozarks, it began to pick up speed. Illinois was hit the worst and suffered high death tolls in Gorham, Murphysboro, Desoto, Parrish and West Frankfort. The tornado continued through Indiana and struck the towns of Griffin and Princeton. Finally the tornado dissipated northeast of Princeton.

The Natchez Tornado first touched down in Concordia Parish, Louisiana then followed the Mississippi River for 7 miles before hitting Natchez Mississippi. Most of the deaths occurred on water because many the river was busy with steamboat and barge traffic. The death toll is believed to be underestimated because this tornado occurred before the Civil War and slave deaths were not counted.

Number Three: The St. Louis/East St. Louis Tornado on May 27, 1896

The St Louis tornado struck the southwest end of the city of St Louis Missouri creating a path of destruction through the urban area. The twister then crossed the Mississippi River and hit East St. Louis in Illinois. With a large transient population living on boats on the river, the death toll may be inaccurate due the bodies washed down the river.

The Tupelo tornado first touched down near Coffeeville and skirted the center of Tupelo but destroyed residential sections of the city. This tornado spawned the deadly Gainesville tornado. The death toll may be inaccurate because African-Americans were not counted in the newspaper records.

The Gainesville tornado was actually a pair of funnels with the smaller one hitting north of the city and the larger one heading for downtown. They funnels converged in the city center and caused extensive damage to factories and businesses. A tornado touched down in Tupelo the previous day.

With more accurate forecasting methods and better education of the public, it is hoped that future tornadoes will produce lower death tolls.

Sources:

The copyright of the article Top Five Deadliest US Tornadoes in Tornadoes & Hurricanes is owned by Maureen K. Fleury. Permission to republish Top Five Deadliest US Tornadoes in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Apr 29, 2008 9:06 AM

Guest :

Is it the deadeast

May 14, 2008 11:07 AM

Guest :

Is that the worst onw

May 14, 2008 11:12 AM

Maureen K. Fleury :

The worst one was the Tri-State Tornado. I have a separate article on it.

Sep 4, 2008 8:40 PM

Guest :

wow that is realy sad! i feel so bad for the families,of the people hurtand killed by these twisters!!!!!!

Sep 18, 2008 12:57 PM

Guest :

whats the worst or deadliest tornado you have ever experienced?

Jan 22, 2009 10:48 AM

Guest :

the tri state tornado was a F5 twister some1s grandfather on youtube was killed buy it poor guy he was only 6 wen that happend

Feb 1, 2009 7:31 PM

Guest :

oh no f5 is nothing, wait till you experience an f8!

Feb 26, 2009 9:25 AM

Guest :

there is no such thing as an F8 dumbass it stops at an F5

Mar 9, 2009 7:00 AM

Guest :

i think that the tornado that went through Barneveld, Wisconsin may be the worst tornado in the last twenty-five years altough the Tri-State tornado was very bad I think that when it destroys over 90% of the city that it has to be considered as one of the worst in the history of the United States of America

Mar 18, 2009 5:26 PM

Guest :

After 50 years of putting up with them, 06 was too close for me (an F4 a quarter mile away. Now i head for cover

Mar 27, 2009 11:08 AM

Guest :

Oh My !
i feel so sorry for tha people in tha united kingdoms
i guess

Apr 1, 2009 11:53 AM

Guest :

there is no such thing of a f8

Apr 3, 2009 12:54 PM

Guest :

oh wow. these are very dangerous! expecially the one near missouri

Apr 10, 2009 10:29 AM

Guest :

actually it goes up to F12 but people only know it up to F5 and now the EF scale has been made which was introduced on February 1st,2007 it wont be included but the EF5 is worse than the F5 tornado for example the Greensburg, Kansas tornado and the Parksburg, Iowa tornadoes were rated as a EF5 pretty scary in reality

Apr 17, 2009 9:57 AM

Guest :

im so sorry for the 605 pepl killed and the 1600 injured i wish they lived

Apr 17, 2009 9:57 AM

Guest :

wow they got owed

Apr 17, 2009 9:58 AM

Guest :

wow

Apr 22, 2009 6:26 PM

Guest :

ok an EF5 is not worse than an F5, tenicaly the F5 had winds of at least 261 mph and the new EF5 must be at 200 mph winds. and the rating is based on damage since there is no acciurate way to measure there winds. But you cannot get worse than an EF5 since nothing is left standing there is nothging left to damage so you cant get worse than an eF5 anyway. no there is not an F8 or F12, some people nneed to learn some facts before writing stupid and dumb comments like that, i am just hoping u were joking. As a meteorologist for over 20 years i would know this stuff. today with advanced warnings and improved technologies i think that it isnt likely to have deathn tolls in the hundreds, there hasnt been in the last 50 years about. However if an EF 4 or 5 struck a major metropolitan arean than that is the only way i could see such high loss of life, typically only about 50 people die on average from tornadoes each year from tornadoes, and more than half come from people in mobile homes.

May 11, 2009 1:53 PM

Guest :

shes a killer

Jun 1, 2009 10:45 AM

Guest :

this is a very interesting website. It helped me alot but i think this is a very interesting website it helped my a lot but you know what i think this is a very interesting website it helped me alot :)