Famous Tornadoes

The Tornado is defined as violently rotating dark funnel like cloud containing column of air. It develops below a heavy cumulonimbus cloud collection and extends towards the earth.

The funnel like cloud rises, twists and falls; when it reaches earth, it results in heavy destruction. The diameter of the tornado varies from one another. Usually the tornadoes come along with the lightening, thunder and heavy rain.

When the nature shows its violent side and weather turns extreme and severe the loss of life and property can be devastating. The famous tornados are those which have caused unforgettable destruction in terms of lives and property. Following are few of the most famous tornado disasters. 

New Richmond was hit by one of the most devastated tornado in history. This tornado hit New Richmond on July 12, 1899. It started out as a waterspout formed above the lake St. Croix.

The wind that was produced by it was so much strong and forceful that a safe that weighed 3,000 pounds was by the tornado was crushed later.

Unfortunately the tornado struck New Richmond in the evening, when there was a circus in the town and the town was crowded, the devastation caused by it was so severe that 117 people were killed and 125 people were injured.

One of the worst tornados in history struck Southern Illinois on March 18, 1925. The disaster lasted for almost 3 hours but by then huge amount of damage was already done. 13 counties and 19 individual companies were affected by this tornado.

It wiped out a landscape that was 219 miles long. The Tri state Tornado is considered the deadliest twister ever witnessed in US history. 695 people were killed and more than 2000 were injured by the destruction caused by this tornado.

The instrument that measures the tornado intensity, Fujita Scale was not in use at that time, so the intensity of this tornado is not known but it is believed to be one of the few f5 tornados, which are the strongest ever measured on the scale. 

At the evening of May 11, 1953, southwest region of Waco in Texas was hit by a deadly tornado. The destruction that this tornado caused was unbelievably painful. More than 1000 buildings were destroyed.

The damage was so severe that people had to wait for more than 10 hours to be rescued. There was heavy rain at that time, so it was pretty hard for the people to see that the tornado was approaching; as a result of this, many of the residents did not seek shelter.

This devastating tornado resulted in the death of 114 people and more than 600 were injured. 

It was in the year 1974, from April 3 to April 4, when the worst outbreak ever in history of the United States was recorded with 148 twisters touching 13 states.

It was 16 hours long and the destruction it caused was beyond numbers. 330 people were killed in this tornado and 5,484 people were injured.

At that time the National Weather Service forecasters could only see green blobs with their radar scopes and could only confirm the tornado when they could visually see it.

However, today thanks to billions of weather service instruments and modernized equipments, we can view the storms with graphical detail and warnings can be issued even before the tornadoes are formed.

The meteorologist suggests that the outbreak like 1974 may happen again.

The people who experienced that disastrous tornado were never able to recover from it mentally and have lots of stories to share about how it happened, and advice about preparation and awareness to face tornados.

It was the unfortunate date of April 11, 1965, when one of the most devastating tornados struck several states in Midwest. The damage done was huge. 250 people were killed and more than 1500 were injured the property that was damaged was worth more that half a billion dollar.

But like they say every dark cloud has a silver lining, it did bring one positive thing. Few important changes were made to The National Weather Service.

The National Weather Service updated their warning system, also the SKYWARN program was implemented, which makes the local weather spotters sound an alarm when they observe severe weather. Also changes were made in the ways the severe weather was reported.