This is a list of

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

es which have been officially or unofficially labeled as F5, EF5, T10-T11, IF5, or an equivalent rating, the highest possible ratings on the various

tornado intensity Tornado intensity can be measured by ''in situ'' or remote sensing measurements, but since these are impractical for wide-scale use, intensity is usually inferred by proxies, such as damage. The Fujita scale, Enhanced Fujita scale, and the Inte ...

scales. These scales – the

Fujita scale The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...

, the

Enhanced Fujita scale The Enhanced Fujita scale (abbreviated as EF-Scale) rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage they cause. It is used in some countries, including the United States, Canada, China, and Mongolia. The Enhanced Fujita scale repla ...

, the

International Fujita scale The International Fujita scale (abbreviated as IF-Scale) rates the intensity of tornadoes and other wind events based on the severity of the damage they cause. It is used by the European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL) and is being worked on by va ...

, and the

TORRO tornado intensity scale The TORRO tornado intensity scale (or T-Scale) is a scale measuring tornado intensity between T0 and T11. It was proposed by Terence Meaden of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO), a meteorological organisation in the United Kingd ...

– attempt to estimate the intensity of a tornado by classifying the damage caused to natural features and man-made structures in the tornado's path. Tornadoes are among the most violent known

meteorological Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

phenomena. Each year, more than 2,000 tornadoes are recorded worldwide, with the vast majority occurring in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. In order to assess the intensity of these events, meteorologist

Ted Fujita was a Japanese-American meteorologist whose research primarily focused on severe weather. His research at the University of Chicago on severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons revolutionized the knowledge of each. Although he is ...

devised a method to estimate maximum

wind speed In meteorology, wind speed, or wind flow speed, is a fundamental atmospheric quantity caused by air moving from high to low pressure, usually due to changes in temperature. Wind speed is now commonly measured with an anemometer. Wind speed ...

s within tornadic storms based on the damage caused; this became known as the

. The scale ranks tornadoes from F0 to F5, with F0 being the least intense and F5 being the most intense. F5 tornadoes were estimated to have had maximum winds between and . Following two particularly devastating tornadoes in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, engineers questioned the reliability of the Fujita scale. Ultimately, a new scale was devised that took into account 28 different damage indicators; this became known as the

. With building design and structural integrity taken more into account, winds in an EF5 tornado were estimated to be in excess of . The Enhanced Fujita scale is used predominantly in North America. Most of Europe, on the other hand, uses the

(or T-Scale), which ranks tornado intensity between T0 and T11; F5/EF5 tornadoes are approximately equivalent to T10 to T11 on the T-Scale. In the United States, between 1950 and January 31, 2007, a total of 50 tornadoes were officially rated F5, and since February 1, 2007, a total of nine tornadoes have been officially rated EF5. Since 1950,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

has had one tornado officially rated an F5. Outside the United States and Canada, six tornadoes have been officially rated F5/EF5/T10+ or equivalent: two each in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and one in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Several other tornadoes have also been documented as possibly attaining this status, though they are not officially rated as such. The work of tornado expert

Thomas P. Grazulis Thomas P. Grazulis (born August 17, 1942) is an American meteorologist who has written extensively about tornadoes and is head of ''The Tornado Project''. Biography Early career Thomas Grazulis grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts and first c ...

revealed the existence of several dozen likely F5 tornadoes between 1880 and 1995. Grazulis also called into question the ratings of several tornadoes currently rated F5 by official sources. Many tornadoes officially rated F4/EF4 or equivalent have been disputed and described as actual F5/EF5/T10+ or equivalent tornadoes, and vice versa; since structures are completely destroyed in both cases, distinguishing between an EF4 tornado and an EF5 tornado is often very difficult. Additionally, because tornado ratings are damage-based, many tornadoes capable of causing F5/EF5/T10+ damage, such as those that move through rural areas, may receive lower ratings because their strongest winds do not strike any suitable damage indicators.

List of events

EF5 Tornadoes in the United States 1950-2019

The tornadoes on this list have been formally rated F5 by an official government source. Unless otherwise noted, the source of the F5 rating is the U.S.

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

(NWS), as shown in the archives of the

Storm Prediction Center The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is a US government agency A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight a ...

(SPC) and

National Climatic Data Center The United States National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), previously known as the National Weather Records Center (NWRC), in Asheville, North Carolina, was the world's largest active archive of weather data. Starting as a tabulation unit in New Orl ...

(NCDC). Prior to 1950, assessments of F5 tornadoes are based primarily on the work of Thomas P. Grazulis. The NCDC has accepted 38 of his F5 classifications of tornadoes occurring between 1880 and 1950. In addition to the accepted ones, Grazulis rated a further 25 during the same period which were not accepted. From 1950 to 1970, tornadoes were assessed retrospectively, primarily using information recorded in government databases, as well as newspaper photographs and eyewitness accounts. Beginning in 1971, tornadoes were rated by the NWS using on-site damage surveys. Grazulis' work has identified 16 additional F5 tornadoes between 1950 and 1995, with four later being accepted by the NCDC. As of February 1, 2007, tornadoes in the United States are rated using the

Enhanced Fujita Scale The Enhanced Fujita scale (abbreviated as EF-Scale) rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage they cause. It is used in some countries, including the United States, Canada, China, and Mongolia. The Enhanced Fujita scale repla ...

, which replaced the

in order to more accurately correlate tornadic intensity with damage indicators and to augment and refine damage descriptors. No earlier tornadoes will be reclassified on the Enhanced Fujita scale, and no new tornadoes in the United States will be rated on the original Fujita scale. France and Canada also adopted the EF-Scale in subsequent years. Since the creation of the

in 2018, no tornadoes have been rated IF5.

Official F5/EF5/T10+ tornadoes

Worldwide, a total of 66 tornadoes have been officially rated F5/EF5: 59 in the United States, two each in France and Germany, and one each in Argentina, Italy, and Canada. Of the 59 tornadoes in the United States, 50 are officially rated F5 on the original Fujita scale (with dates of occurrence between May 11, 1953, and May 3, 1999), and nine are officially rated EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale (with dates of occurrence between May 4, 2007, and May 20, 2013). An additional four tornadoes which occurred prior to 1950, all in Europe, with three having been officially rated F5 by the

European Severe Storms Laboratory The European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL) is a scientific organisation that conducts research on severe convective storms, tornadoes, intense precipitation events, and avalanches across Europe and the Mediterranean. It operates the widely con ...

(ESSL) and one being rated EF5 by Keraunos and ESSL. The most recent EF5 tornado occurred on May 20, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma.

Possible F5/EF5/T10+ tornadoes officially rated F4/EF4/T9 or lower

Because the distinctions between F4/EF4/T9 and F5/EF5/T10 tornadoes are often ambiguous, the official ratings of numerous other tornadoes formally rated below F5/EF5/T10 or equivalent have been disputed, with certain government sources or independent studies contradicting the official record. This list includes tornadoes rated F5/EF5/IF5/T10 by government meteorologists, non-government employeed tornado experts (i.e.

) or meteorological research institutions (i.e.

) that rated a tornado differently than the official government organization in charge of the rating. Published academic papers or presentations at academically held meteorological conferences that rate tornadoes as F5/EF5/IF5/T10 or present some evidence to support damage or winds in that category are also ways a tornado can be added to this list. This list can also include tornadoes previously officially rated as an F5 or EF5, but have since been downgraded officially to a lower rating. ''This is a

dynamic list In computer science, a linked list is a linear collection of data elements whose order is not given by their physical placement in memory. Instead, each element points to the next. It is a data structure consisting of a collection of nodes whi ...

and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by participating in discussions about tornadoes for this list.''

Possible F5/EF5/T10+ tornadoes with no official rating

Many other tornadoes have never been formally rated by an official government source but have nonetheless been described as F5/EF5/T10+ or equivalent, often by independent studies. Most of these tornadoes occurred prior to 1950, before tornadoes were rated according to standardized damage assessments, and their unofficial classifications as F5/EF5/T10+ or equivalent have been made in retrospect, largely on the basis of photographic analysis and eyewitness accounts. A few, such as the

Tri-State Tornado On March 18, 1925, one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in recorded history generated at least twelve significant tornadoes and spanned a large portion of the midwestern and southern United States. In all, at least 751 people were ki ...

of 1925, are widely accepted as F5/EF5/T10+ tornadoes, despite not being rated as such in official records. ''This is a

and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by participating in discussions about tornadoes for this list.''

Notes

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

F5 Tornadoes in the U.S. since 1950 (SPC/NOAA)

U.S. F5 tornadoes
- Tornado History Project
The Tornado Project

Climatological Risk of Strong and Violent Tornadoes in the United States (Paper 9.4, Second Conference on Environmental Applications)

Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Climatology (NSSL)

Extreme Weather at the CBC.ca Archives

{{DEFAULTSORT:F5 And Ef5 Tornadoes Tornado-related lists