Top 10 tornado days in the United States

When it comes to top calendar days for tornadoes, May leads all other months with six days falling into the top 10 (or 11 because of a tie) list.

The Mississippi Valley up to the Ohio Valley has had the most of these top tornado days with seven. In the Plains, Kansas appears to be the hotspot as it’s involved in a number of the events.

The April 25-28, 2011 tornado outbreak tops the list for single-day numbers on the 27th as well as overall tornado outbreak history. It produced 350 tornadoes in total, with over 200 of those on April 27 alone.

For further context, outside of the top 10 list, there are 21 days that fall into the 60-78 tornadoes per day range (just below the top 10). Another 20 days fit into the 50-59 tornadoes in one day bracket.

The maps below focus on the calendar day noted, but also show gray tracks associated with an outbreak that touched the day shown. Not all tornadoes on either side of the main day are shown if there was no continual outbreak connected to it.

#10 (tie): 5/23/2008 (79 tornadoes)

#10 (tie): 5/18/1995 (79 tornadoes)

#8 (tie): 5/30/2004 (81 tornadoes)

#8 (tie): 5/4/2003 (81 tornadoes)

#7: 4/14/2012 (85 tornadoes)

#6: 1/21/1999 (86 tornadoes)

#5: 5/5/2007 (90 tornadoes)

#4: 5/25/2011 (93 tornadoes)

#3: 6/24/2003 (95 tornadoes)

#2: 4/3/1974 (128 tornadoes)

#1: 4/27/2011 (207 tornadoes)

Sources include the Storm Prediction Center, Tornado History Project, ESRI, and NASA.