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Click on the links to read about tornadoes which have occurred throughout history.

Essex County, Massachusetts, USA (1643, July 5)
Governor John Winthrop recorded New England’s first tornado when he wrote, "There arose a sudden gust so violent for one-half hour as it blew down multitudes of trees. It lifted up their meeting house at Newbury, the people being in it. It darkened the air with dust, yet through God’s great mercy it did no hurt, but only killed one Indian with the fall of a tree." Some others, however, think that Winthrop’s "tornado" may only have been a line squall.

Southern Illinois, USA (1805, June 5)
America’s first recorded Midwestern tornado had little effect on human life because of the region’s low population density. The tornado began in southeast Missouri and then crossed the Mississippi River 20 miles south of St. Louis, hitting an area then known as American Bottom in Illinois. The storm ruined farms and boats on the river. One report claimed that "Fish from the river and lakes were scattered all over the prairie," and another claimed "a large bull was raised up high in the air, carried a considerable distance, and every bone in his body was broken."

Washington, D.C., USA (1814, August 25)
British troops captured the nation’s capital during the War of 1812, setting fire to buildings in retaliation for American wins. A tornado struck as the government buildings burned, killing 30 soldiers and many local residents. One British historian noted, "More British soldiers were killed and wounded by this stroke of nature than from all the firearms the American troops had mustered in the ineffectual defense of the city."

Natchez, Mississippi, USA (1840, May 7)
A tornado hit the city’s residential section at 2 p.m., killing over 300 citizens. The five-minute whirlwind was the worst disaster prior to the Civil War. One witness reported in the Mississippi Free Trader: “The dinner bells in the large hotels had rung a little before two o’clock and most of our citizens were sitting at their tables. When suddenly, the atmosphere was darkened so as the require the lighting of candles; and in a few moments afterwards, the rain was precipitated in tremendous cataracts rather than drops. In another moment, the tornado, in all its wrath, was upon us. The strongest buildings shook as if tossed with an earthquake; the air was black with whirling eddies of house walls, roofs, chimneys, huge timbers torn from distant ruins, all shot through the air as if thrown from a mighty catapult. The atmosphere soon became lighter and then such an awful scene of ruin as perhaps ever before met the eye of man became manifest "Hundreds of rooms were burst open as sudden as if barrels of gunpowder had been ignited in each."

Comanche, Iowa, USA (1860, June 3)
A group of twisters killed 141 people and injured another 350, destroying several small towns in its path. The town of Comanche was “literally blown to pieces, with death and destruction scattered everywhere…hardly a house uninjured and many swept away completely…The angel of destruction had passed over it and with his whip brushed it from the bosom of the plain.”

Southern USA (1884, February 9-19)
Tornadoes plagued the region for ten days, luckily avoiding major urban centers. An estimated 600 people may have died, and property losses were probably high. It was the second deadliest tornado in history.

New Richmond, Wisconsin, USA (1889, June 12)
119 people were killed and another 146 injured.

St. Louis, Missouri, USA (1896, May 27)
An overcast sky and strong winds began to develop at noon, increasing in severity by afternoon. At 5 p.m., the wind rose to 80 mph as lightning and rain began to appear. The sky then turned a greenish color and the first tornado hit. As many as 400 lives were lost and $13 million in property damage caused.

Midwestern USA (1917, March 23-27)
211 people died when tornadoes hit four states over a four-day period.

Lake Erie, Ohio, USA (1924, June 28)
Tornadoes tore through several cities in 40 minutes, killing 93. People, horses, cars, trees, and other assorted debris were thrown through the streets.

Midwestern USA (1925, March 18)
A hot, wet air mass moved inland from the Gulf of California, colliding with a cold front over Colorado. The Great Tri-State Tornado was one of those superstorms that travel over 100 miles before exhausting themselves. This storm swept across 219 miles, creating eight tornadoes that demolished buildings, snapped off trees, tore water pipes out of the ground, tossing houses and railroad cars easily. The tornado took 689 lives and injured more than 13,000. Property losses totaled up to $18 million, the worst tornado in history.

St. Louis, Missouri, USA (1927, September 29)
As many as 90 residents died when this tornado hit, injuring 6,000 and causing as much as $40 million damage.

Alabama, USA (1932, March 21)
More than 20 tornadoes killed 268 people.

Mississippi, Georgia, USA (1936, April 5-6)
Two days of monster tornadoes took 658 lives. Over 1,800 were also injured. Experts claim a tornado should only strike the same square degree of area only once in 1,000 years, but Gainesville, Georgia, was hit in 1903, 1936, and 1944.

Pryor, Oklahoma, USA (1942, April 27)
A tornado destroyed the town, killing 100 and injuring 300.

Appalachia, USA (1944, June 23)
Four twisters hit the area, killing 153 citizens and causing $5.6 million property losses.

West Texas-Oklahoma, USA (1947, April 9)
Tornadoes killed 169 people and injured another 1,300.

South-central USA (1952, March 21-22)
31 separate twisters hit six different states, killing 343 people, injuring 1,400, and destroying 3,500 homes. Damages were estimated exceeding $15 million.

Waco, Texas, USA (1953, May 11)
A tornado took 114 lives and totaled $39 million damage. This disaster started many sociological studies on community and individual reactions to disaster.

Flint, Michigan, USA (1953, June 8)
Six tornadoes swept across 350 miles, destroying an industrial center at Flint, Michigan. The storms damaged 40 houses, killed 113 people, and totaled $15 million property losses.

Worcester, Massachusetts, USA (1953, June 9)
At 5:08 p.m., a new reporter saw “a dark ominous twister carrying with it boards and debris and raising clouds of dust.” One minute later, a tornado hit the town, destroying a residential area, a college, and a new housing development. 94 people died in the next sixty seconds, and another 1,306 were injured. Damages exceeded $53 million, the most expensive tornado to date. The storm was so violent that it sent debris falling 40 miles away. Many visitors came to see the tornado’s effects, prompting survivors to say: “It’s a good thing o have them see what happened here…What they see will help them realize what can happen any place any time.” This event helped people see how vulnerable anyone in the United States was to natural disasters. Many Northeastern residents were surprised that a tornado could strike their region.

Kansas and Oklahoma, USA (1955, May 25)
A warm Gulf of Mexico air mass crashed into a cold front, creating 19 tornadoes that killed more than 100 people and injured 700 across two states.

Midwestern USA (1965, April 11)
The Palm Sunday Tornadoes, about 40 in all, raged through six states in nine hours. 272 people perished, 5,000 were injured and $300 million in property damage was done.

Jackson, Mississippi, USA (1966, March 3)
This unpredictable tornado was seen only three minutes before hitting the city, killing 57 residents. On the same day, similar storms killed another 60 people in Mississippi and Alabama.

Texas (1967)
Hurricane Beulah spins off 155 tornadoes, which whirl off and add to the damage.

Jonesboro, Arkansas (1968, May 15)
This tornado hit at 10 p.m., disabling observation and prediction methods. The city of 20,000 people was caught unawares, and the twister killed 36 citizens.

Dacca, East Pakistan (1969, April 14)
This tornado killed 50 people and injured as many as 4,000 when the highly populated city of Dacca was hit.

South-central USA (1971, February 21)
Tornadoes killed 117 people.

Midwestern USA (April 3-4, 1974)
148 tornadoes swept across the central United States in 18 hours, wiping away towns as they cut through 13 states. In about three minutes, a tornado flattened 3,000 houses and businesses in Xenia, Ohio. 350 lives were lost, while 6,142 suffered injuries. There was about $1 billion in property damage. This event is now known as the “Superoutbreak of 1974.” The tornadoes were caused by a 1,000-mile-long cold front that stuck itself beneath hot, moist air flowing north from the Gulf of Mexico. The air masses met over the center of the United States, forming a band of violently churning air that spanned hundreds of miles. Luckily, the National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City issued warnings of the tornadoes, so many lives were saved.

Omaha, Nebraska, USA (1975, May 6)
Because of the frequency of tornadoes in the Midwestern United States, the U.S. Weather Service isolates “tornado days,” when weather conditions may trigger a twister. The Weather Service then notifies the Radio Emergency Associated Citizen Team (REACT), a team of volunteers, who look out for funnel clouds and then alert the correct authorities. Thanks to REACT’s early warning, this tornado, which ruined 5,000 buildings and caused $100 million property damage, only took 3 lives.

Clearwater, Florida, USA (1978, May 4)
A storm created several tornadoes that luckily caused little damage. It did tear off the roof of the High Point Elementary School in this town, where two children were killed and 96 injured.

Ottawa, Kansas, USA (1978, June 18)
A small tornado capsized the showboat Whippoorwill, dumping many people overboard and trapping several below deck. 15 people died in the storm, which was too small to be detected on radar.

Wichita Falls, Texas, USA (1979, April 10)
Three tornadoes swept through Texas and Oklahoma in the afternoon, killing 60, injuring up to 900, and destroying $400 million worth of property. Most of the damage was caused by a twister that cut through Wichita Falls, destroying shopping malls and over 2,000 buildings. The ten-mile-high tornado had enough force to bend cars around telephone poles. Some reports claim the wind was strong enough to suck dentures from the mouths of some victims.

Ohio Valley and Canada (1985)
41 tornadoes leave 90 dead and over 1,000 injured. The tornado lifts giant 40-ton gas storage tanks, crushing them and tossing them across a road.

Antilles to Charleston, South Carolina, USA (1989, September 15)
Scientists and pilots from the national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flew into the eye of Hurricane as a routine part of monitoring tropical storms. Their plane was flying through the wall of the eye, only a few hundred feet away from the storm’s calm center, when it was suddenly clutched by violent winds. One of the four engines failed, and the plane dropped to within 800 feet of the Atlantic Ocean before finally breaking into the eye. The scientists later discovered that they had flown into a bizarre anomaly - a tornado had developed in the eye’s wall, hidden in the power of the larger storm.

Huntsville, Alabama (1990)
A tornado cuts a ten-mile-long, quarter-mile-wide path.

Midwest USA (1990)
Seven states, from Wisconsin to Kansas, suffer a number of tornadoes that leave 24 cities damaged. 50 tornadoes touch down in only four hours. 13 perish.

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