Top 5 Deadliest Tornadoes To Hit The United States In The Last 50 years

Due to advancements in weather forecasting tools and alert systems, tornadoes in recent memory have been less destructive compared to those that touched down a century ago. Despite this there has still been numerous incredibly destructive storms to clobber those unfortunate towns that lie in what forecasters like to call, tornado alley; a corridor shaped region where most tornadoes occur stretching across the states in the great plains such as Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, Illinois, and Ohio. Scientists measure the intensity of Tornadoes with something called the Enhanced Fujita Scale this ranks tornadoes from weakest to strongest with the weakest being an EF0 with winds between 65-85 mph and the strongest being an EF5 with winds exceeding 200 mph. These tornadoes are formed by storms called supercells, these are warm, moist, unstable air that are along and ahead of cold fronts which drop heavy rain, hail, and heavy winds over the affected area. Along with this you get the wind variations with height that supports the rotation in the updraft causing, tornadoes. Most recently in Oklahoma there was a massive tornado outbreak which leveled the town of Barnsdall and Bartlesville killing 1 person and injuring others. So in correlation to these recent twister events here are the top 5 deadliest tornadoes to hit the United States in the last 50 years.

#5 The 2013 Moore, Oklahoma Tornado (May 20, 2013)

This was the second most devastating tornado to ever hit this town as Moore will sadly be featured twice on this list. It was an EF5 tornado with peak winds estimated at 210 mph, and caused an estimated 2 Billion dollars in damage also causing 24 fatalities and 212 injuries.

#4 The Xenia, Ohio Tornado (April 3, 1974)

This tornado was a part of the famous 1974 Super Outbreak, which was the second largest tornado outbreak on record for a 24 hour period as 148 tornadoes were recorded. The tornado that hit Xenia ended up being the most destructive one being rated an EF5 with winds recorded up to 250 mph. The twister caused billions of dollars in damages and caused 32 fatalities.

#3 The Bridge-Creek Moore, Oklahoma Tornado (May 3, 1999)

This was the most devastating tornado to hit the town of Moore as it was another EF5 that caused 1 billion dollars in damage, took 36 lives, and injured hundreds. What set this twister apart from the second one to hit the town and the main cause of the greater destruction was the remarkable intensity of the storm with winds measured at over 300 mph.

#2 The Tuscaloosa-Birmingham, Alabama Tornado (April 27,2011)

This was the second deadliest tornado to hit the United states this year and was a part of the worst tornado outbreak to ever hit the United States as from April 25-April 28, 2011 there were 360 confirmed tornadoes including 324 tornado related fatalities. The most destructive one, the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado which was recorded as an EF4 but caused 64 deaths and 1,500 injuries along with around 2.4 billion dollars in damage.

#1 The Joplin, Missouri Tornado, (May 22, 2011)

This EF5 tornado was surprisingly not a part of the tornado outbreak that occurred earlier in the year but it was much more deadly than any twister that occurred during that time period. As with winds recorded between 225-250 mph the storm caused 2.8 billion dollars in damage, 158 fatalities, and injured over 1,000 people.

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