US Tornado Tracks Map: Explore Historical Tornadoes by Year and Intensity

This interactive map displays historical tornado tracks across the United States from 1950 to 2024, using data from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center. Select any year to load every recorded tornado track, color-coded by intensity on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale. Click any track to see the date, path length, width, fatalities, and injuries. Use the Zoom to dropdown to focus on Tornado Alley, individual states, or a broad US overview.

How to Use This Map

Selecting a Year

Use the Year dropdown to load all recorded tornado tracks for any season from 1950 to 2024. The map updates automatically. The track count in the top-right corner shows how many tornadoes have loaded for the current map view.

Zooming to a Region

Use the Zoom to dropdown to jump directly to Tornado Alley, individual states such as Oklahoma, Kansas, or Texas, or to a broad US overview. You can also pan and zoom freely across the entire country.

Reading Track Colors

Each track is colored by its EF or F scale rating. Stronger tornadoes appear in warmer colors and with thicker lines, making the most significant events easy to spot. The legend in the bottom-right corner shows the full color key.

Clicking a Track

Click any tornado track to open a popup showing the EF/F scale rating, date, state, path length in miles, path width in yards, and the number of fatalities and injuries recorded.

About the EF and F Scale

Tornadoes recorded before February 2007 are rated on the original Fujita scale (F0-F5). Tornadoes from February 2007 onward use the Enhanced Fujita scale (EF0-EF5), which incorporates improved damage indicators and better reflects the relationship between wind speed and structural damage.

• EF0 / F0 – Winds 65-85 mph; minor damage to chimneys, branches broken
• EF1 / F1 – Winds 86-110 mph; moderate damage, roof surfaces peeled off
• EF2 / F2 – Winds 111-135 mph; considerable damage, roofs torn off, mobile homes demolished
• EF3 / F3 – Winds 136-165 mph; severe damage, entire stories of well-constructed homes destroyed
• EF4 / F4 – Winds 166-200 mph; devastating damage, well-constructed homes leveled
• EF5 / F5 – Winds above 200 mph; incredible damage, strong frame houses lifted and carried

Notable US Tornado Years

Some years in the dataset stand out for their activity or the severity of individual outbreaks:

• 2011 – The most active tornado year on record, with over 1,600 confirmed tornadoes. The April 27 Super Outbreak produced 216 tornadoes in a single day and killed 316 people across the Southeast.
• 1974 – The Super Outbreak of April 3-4 produced 148 tornadoes across 13 states in 18 hours, including multiple F5 events. It was the largest outbreak on record until 2011.
• 1999 – The May 3 Oklahoma City tornado outbreak included an F5 that struck Moore, Oklahoma with the highest wind speed ever recorded near the surface at the time: 318 mph.
• 2013 – Another EF5 struck Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, killing 24 people and causing over $2 billion in damage along a 1.3-mile-wide path.
• 1950 – The earliest year in the dataset. Early records are less complete than modern data, as detection methods and reporting standards have improved significantly over the decades.

Tornado Alley and Beyond

While Tornado Alley — roughly covering Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and surrounding states — is the most tornado-prone region in the world, significant tornado activity also occurs across the Southeast, Midwest, and Gulf Coast states. The map allows you to explore the full geographic spread of tornado activity across the entire country for any given year.

Data Source

Tornado track data is sourced from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center tornado database, which contains records of all known US tornadoes since 1950. The data is updated annually after post-season verification. The dataset is published as a public feature service by ESRI and NOAA and is current through December 30, 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do some tornadoes show as EF0 or unknown?

Many short-lived or weak tornadoes are rated EF0 or receive no formal rating. Early records before the 1970s may also have incomplete or estimated intensity ratings due to limited damage surveys at the time.

Can I search for a specific tornado by name or date?

The map does not have a text search feature. To find a specific event, select the year it occurred and zoom to the affected state or region. Clicking tracks will confirm the date in the popup.

Why do earlier decades appear to have fewer tornadoes?

Tornado reporting has improved significantly over time. Before Doppler radar became widespread in the 1990s, many weak tornadoes in rural areas went undetected. The apparent increase in tornado counts over time partly reflects better detection rather than a true increase in frequency.

What does the path length represent?

Path length is the distance the tornado traveled along the ground in miles, from touchdown to liftoff. Stronger tornadoes tend to travel farther, though short-track EF4 and EF5 events do occur.

Does the map show every tornado that hit the US?

The map shows all tornadoes in NOAA’s official SPC database for the selected year. The database is the most comprehensive public record available, though records become less complete the further back in time you go.