“DAVE’S” Tornado List

15-Feb-2008

It’s been a little more than a year since I began the task of documenting what I consider to be “significant” tornado events in the contiguous U.S. My motive was to attempt to sort through preliminary data and quickly come up with the number of tornadoes that occurred during an event... I have only been interested in those tornadoes that meant something more than just meeting the definition of a tornado. Preliminary numbers of tornadoes during any given day are good for letting forecasters, media, and enthusiasts know how an event is unfolding. However, over the past several years, I have noticed that preliminary numbers tend to become more and more firm... and even final... in the weeks and months after (at least in peoples minds and their conversations about a tornado event).

It’s been hard to come up with my definition of a “significant tornado”. I still haven’t come up with anything much more than it is a tornado that you wouldn’t want hitting your house. Because let’s face it, a weak, short-lived circulation that removes a shingle and breaks a tree branch can actually make a good story! The tornadoes that are making the list are the ones that based off of N.W.S. storm surveys, photos, video, radar and storm chaser reports... are big enough, wide enough and strong enough to take a bite out of anything they track across.

With this in mind, the number of tornadoes making my list is usually quite a bit lower than official numbers. For instance, 512 tornadoes made my list in 2007 where the final number on the S.P.C. page will end up near 1100. I don’t believe that the 1100 official tornadoes is an inaccurate number. I just believe that more than half are not worthy enough to be grouped with the other multi-minute, multi-mile, life-cycle events.

The data here is NOT official and NOT associated/endorsed with/by the National Weather Service.