List of tornadoes striking downtown areas
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This article is a list of tornadoes that have impacted the central business district (downtown) of a large city.
It is a common - and definitely false - myth that tornadoes do not strike downtown areas. The odds are much lower due to the small areas covered, but paths can go anywhere - including over downtown areas. St. Louis, Missouri has taken a direct hit four times in less than a century[1] and Windsor, Ontario, Canada was also struck three times in 50 years. Many of the tornadoes listed were extremely destructive or caused numerous casualties, and the occurrence of a catastrophic event somewhere is inevitable[2]
It should also be noted that this list is not exhaustive (listing every single tornado that has struck a downtown area or central business district of any city), as it may never be known if a tornado struck a downtown area, or if it was just a microburst (powerful downward gust of wind, which cause much of their damage from straight-line winds), particularly for older events or from areas with limited information. Downbursts often accompany intense tornadoes, extending damage across a wider area than the tornado path. When a tornado strikes a city, it is occasionally very difficult to determine whether it was a tornadic event at all or if the affected area was indeed the "downtown" or "central business district", as opposed to other heavily urbanized/built-up parts of the city or suburbs. It is sometimes also difficult to determine tornadoes that strike urban cores before 1950, when tornado records (particularly in the US) started to be consistently logged with detail. Before this, lack of details on information from the events, as well as that most cities were far smaller in area and population complicates the record.
For the list of cities that are not listed here for certain reasons, see below.
[edit] North America
[edit] South America
South America has no default tornado strength measurement system, so the storms here will be listed using the Fujita Scale.
| F# | City | Date | Deaths | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F? | Buenos Aires, Argentina | November 22, 1951 | Unknown, 45 injured | |
| F? | Encarnación, Paraguay | October 25, 1965 | Unknown | |
| F? | Vichero, Uruguay | October 25, 1968 | 1, 12 injured | |
| F3 | Barranquilla, Colombia | September 16, 2006 | 0 | Barranquilla, Colombia Tornado |
| F? | Bogotá, Colombia | August 26, 2007 | Unknown | 2007 Bogotá Tornado |
[edit] Europe
|
Europe |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T#/F# | City | Date | Deaths | Event |
| T8/F4 | London, England | October 23, 1091 | Unknown, destroyed London Bridge | London Tornado of 1091 |
| F? | Vyšehrad (now Prague), Bohemia | July 30, 1119 | Unknown | Vyšehrad Tornado of 1119 |
| F? | Prague, Bohemia | April 8, 1255 | Unknown | Prague Tornado of 1255 |
| F4 | Valletta, Malta | September 23, 1551 (or 1556) | 600 | Valetta, Malta Tornado |
| F3 | Utrecht, Netherlands | August 1, 1674 | Unknown | Utrecht, Netherlands Tornado, damaged Dom Tower and Cathedral of St. Martin |
| F5 | Woldegk, Germany | June 29, 1764 | 1 | |
| F5 | Hainichen, Germany | April 23, 1800 | 0 | |
| T8/F4 | Portsmouth, England | December 14, 1810 | Unknown | Portsmouth UK Tornado |
| F5 | Monville, France | August 19, 1845 | ||
| F3 | Frankfurt, Germany | Summer of 1860 | Unknown | Frankfurt Tornado of 1860 |
| F3 | Madrid, Spain | May 12, 1886 | 45 dead | The most catastrophic and deadliest tornado in Spain in the past 200 years but not the most powerful |
| F0 | Munich, Germany | May 27, 1897 | 0 | Munich Tornado of 1897 |
| F4 | Cologne, Germany | August 7, 1898 | 3 | Cologne Tornado of 1898 |
| F4 | Moscow, Russia | June 29, 1904 | >10 | Moscow tornado of 1904. The destroyed areas are within the city limits today, but were suburbs in 1904 |
| F? | Berlin, Germany | July 25, 1909 | Unknown | Berlin Tornado of 1909 |
| F3 | Chemnitz, Germany | May 27, 1916 | 0 | Chemnitz Tornado of 1916 |
| T5/F2 | Düsseldorf, Germany | June 8, 1924 | 2 | Düsseldorf Tornado of 1924 |
| F4 | Neede-Berkelland, Netherlands | June 1, 1927 | ||
| F5 | Udine, Italy | July 24, 1930 | 23 | Po - Udine, Italy Tornado |
| F5 (?) | Lublin, Poland | July 20, 1931 | Unknown | Lublin Tornado of 1931 |
| F4 | Düsseldorf, Germany | January 10, 1936 | 2 | Düsseldorf Tornado of 1936 |
| F4 | Borzymmen (Borzymy), Mazury, Poland | July 15, 1940 | ||
| F4 | Klodzko-Slaskie, Poland | August 20, 1946 | ||
| F2 | Hannover, Germany | September 15, 1950 | 0 | Hannover Tornado of 1950 |
| F3 | Castelo Branco, Portugal | November 6, 1954 | 5 dead 220 injured | Tornadoes in Portugal |
| F0 | Magdeburg, Germany | July 25, 1955 | 0 | Magdeburg Tornado of 1955 |
| F1 | Düsseldorf, Germany | October 6, 1955 | Unknown | Düsseldorf Tornado of 1955 |
| F1 | Szczecin, Poland | August 25, 1956 | 0 | Szczecin Tornado of 1956 |
| F4 | Robecco Pavese, Valle Scuropasso, Italy | June 16, 1957 | ||
| F3 | Garac, France | May 18, 1960 | No dead and no injured | The Garac tornado is the most powerful tornado that Southwestern France has ever seen in the past 50 years. |
| F5 | Nechobrz, Poland | May 20, 1960 | ||
| F1 | Perm, Russia | June 17, 1960 | Unknown | Perm Tornado of 1960 |
| F1 | Voronezh, Russia | August 14, 1961 | Unknown | Voronezh Tornado of 1961 |
| F5 | Palluel, France | June 24. 1967 | ||
| F5 | Venice, Italy | September 11, 1970 | 30 | Venice Tornado of 1970 |
| F3 | Nizhni Novgorod, Russia | July 3, 1974 | Unknown | Nizhni Novgorod Tornado of 1974 |
| F5 | Ivanovo, Russia | 9 June 1984 | More 400 deaths in the outbreak | Tornado outbreak of the 9 June 1984 |
| F3 | Beja, Portugal | September 20, 1987 | 7 injured | Tornadoes in Portugal |
| F3 | Mangualde, Portugal | December 16, 1989 | Unknown | Tornadoes in Portugal |
| F2 | Duisburg, Oberhausen, Germany | July 18, 2004 | 6 injured | |
| T4/F2 | Birmingham, United Kingdom | July 28, 2005 | 0 Killed 30 injured | Birmingham Tornado (UK) |
| F2 | Hamburg, Germany | March 27, 2006 | ||
| T4/F2 | London, United Kingdom | December 7, 2006 | 0 | London Tornado of 2006 |
| F2 | Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany | January 18, 2007 | Unknown | Kyrill (storm) |
| F3 | Brandenburg, Germany-Brachwitz, Germany | January 18, 2007 | Unknown | Kyrill (storm) |
| F3 | Lauchhammer, Brandenburg, Germany | January 18, 2007 | Unknown | Kyrill (storm) |
| F2 | Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany | June 25, 2007 | Unknown | Oberad Tornado of 2007 |
[edit] Africa
Africa has no default tornado strength measurement system, so the storms here will be listed using the Fujita Scale.
| F# | City | Date | Deaths | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F? | Highveld, South Africa (Johannesburg & Pretoria) | November 26, 1948 | 6 | Johannesburg - Pretoria Tornado |
| F4 | Karoo, South Africa (Trompsburg, South Africa) | November 26, 1948 | 5+ | Trompsburg, South Africa Tornado |
| F? | Albertynesville, South Africa | November 30, 1952 | 20 | Albertynesville, South Africa Tornado |
| F2 | Paynesville, South Africa | December 2, 1952 | 11 | Paynesville, South Africa Tornado |
| F3 | Senekal, South Africa | September 15, 1988 | 2 | Senekal, South Africa Tornado |
| F3 | Mtata, South Africa [18] | December 15, 1998 | 15 | Mtata, South Africa Tornado |
| F4 | Mount Ayliff, South Africa [19] | January 18, 1999 | 25 | Mount Ayliff, South Africa Tornado Outbreak |
| F3 | Heidelberg, Gauteng, South Africa [20] | October 21, 1999 | 0 | Heidelberg, South Africa Tornado Outbreak |
| F3 | Mpumalanga, South Africa [21] | September 9, 2002 | 2 | Mpumalanga, South Africa Tornado Outbreak |
| F3 | Klerksdorp, South Africa [22] | March 3, 2007 | 1, 350 injured | Klerksdorp, South Africa Tornado |
| F4 | Bebejia, Logone Oriental Prefecture, Chad | May 9, 2007 | 14, town was destroyed | Bebejia, Chad Tornado |
[edit] Asia
Most of Asia has no default tornado strength measurement system (though Japan has been known to use the Fujita Scale in the past), so the storms here will be listed using the Fujita Scale.[23]
[edit] Notable absences
The 1985 Barrie Tornado that struck Barrie, Ontario would be listed here, had it struck today. It is not listed, however, since the town's population was under 50,000 at the time (May 31, 1985). Similarly, the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak that spawned the deadly F5 tornado which struck Moore, Midwest City, and Oklahoma City is not listed, since those cities had under 50,000 in population as well, and did not reach the downtown core of Oklahoma City. But today, Moore and Midwest City have well over 50,000 people.
Similarly, the downtown areas of two then-small towns (now large cities) were struck during the 1884 Enigma outbreak: Concord, NC and Cary, NC. Downtown Concord was struck a second time by a tornado in May of 1936.[25],[26],[27]
The 1987 Edmonton Tornado is likewise not listed because it struck industrial parks, trailer parks, and suburban areas, and was far away from Edmonton's downtown core, although the Edmonton area has roughly 1.1 million people. The "Oak Lawn tornado" of April 21, 1967 which killed 33 people, mostly those in rush hour traffic at a busy intersection, and moved across southern Chicago onto Lake Michigan is not included because it missed the downtown core. Most recently, the 2008 Memphis tornado on February 5, 2008 also missed the downtown area (by a significant distance).
Another notable absence is the July 7, 1915 storm that struck Cincinnati, Ohio, killing 38 people. This was determined to be most likely a windstorm causing downbursts or even a series of microbursts (with much of the damage coming from the straight-line winds), and not a tornado.[28]
European tornadoes that are listed before 1950 are for cities that had at least 50,000 people in them at the time. Tornadoes dating back to 1054 are confirmed, due to extensive record-keeping for many weather events and other until-then unexplained weather occurrences.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Edwards, Roger; J. Schaefer. Downtown Tornadoes. Storm Prediction Center.
- ^ Wurman, Joshua; C. Alexander, P. Robinson, and Y. Richardson (Jan 2007). "Low-Level Winds in Tornadoes and Potential Catastrophic Tornado Impacts in Urban Areas". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 88 (1): 31–46. American Meteorological Society. doi:.
- ^ Chicago Area Significant Tornadoes
- ^ http://www.intellicast.com/Almanac/Central/March/
- ^ Syracuse Herald, Syracuse New York. April 3, 1936
- ^ VAEmergency.com > Newsroom & Archives > Virginia Tornado History
- ^ Downtown Tornadoes
- ^ Panama City Tornado of 1992
- ^ VAEmergency.com > Newsroom & Archives > Virginia Tornado History
- ^ NWS Houston/Galveston | Severe Weather Awareness Week | Tornadoes
- ^ Tornado History Project - Tornado Map
- ^ Tornado History Project - Tornado Map
- ^ Survey of the Clarksville Tornado of January 22, 1999
- ^ Gervais, Raymond. "Une mini-tornade frappe le centre-ville de Hull (Mini-tornado hits downtown Hull)", La Presse, May 9, 1999, p. A3.
- ^ Six injured in Hull tornado
- ^ July 17th
- ^ NWS SGF Jan 08 2008 Tornadoes
- ^ http://www.wrc.org.za/archives/watersa%20archive/2000/July/1263.pdf
- ^ http://www.wrc.org.za/archives/watersa%20archive/2000/July/1263.pdf
- ^ http://www.wrc.org.za/archives/watersa%20archive/2000/July/1263.pdf
- ^ http://www.wrc.org.za/archives/watersa%20archive/2000/July/1263.pdf
- ^ IOL: Tornado rips through Klerksdorp suburbs
- ^ Japanese Tornadoes: Not As Uncommon As Believed
- ^ Bangladesh and East India Tornado Prediction Site
- ^ New York Times, New York. February 21, 1884
- ^ Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana. February 22 1884
- ^ Finley, John P. Tornadoes: What They Are and How To Observe Them; With Practical Suggestions For The Protection of Life and Property, pages 98-103. The Insurance Monitor, New York, NY, 1887
- ^ 1915: Cincinnati's Deadliest Winds
