Tornado events of 2020

by Ian Livingston and Katie Wheatley (last updated: 04.17)

The 2020 tornado year got off to a big start, as one of the largest winter tornado outbreaks on record occurred in the middle of January.

February kicked off in similar fashion, with another sizable set of events, including the biggest regional tornado outbreak on record during winter in the Washington area.

As March began, the ustornadoes.com spring tornado outlook called for an active season. Hours after that outlook, a tragic set of tornadoes caused numerous deaths in Tennessee. Then, the biggest outbreak in years struck in April.

(note: a handful of tornadoes are west of the map focus above and not shown)

Significant tornado outbreaks of 2020

January 10-11
79 tornadoes

• One of the largest winter outbreaks on record
• Outbreak leaves large swath of damage, three deadly tornadoes

February 5-7
37 tornadoes

• 5 tornadoes hit D.C. area, largest local winter event

March 2-3
14 tornadoes

• Death toll from Tennessee tornadoes climbs to at least 25
• First violent tornado of the year: EF4 in Putnam County, Tennessee
• Nashville tornado an EF3 with 60.13 mile track

Offices impacted: Nashville, Memphis

April 12-13
123+ tornadoes

• 38 fatalities caused by multiple tornadoes
• Second and third violent tornadoes of 2020: Near Salem to near Bassfield and near Bassfield to near Soso, Miss.
• Third-widest tornado on record, and widest in Miss., with 2.25 mile wide EF4

Offices impacted: BMX, CAE, HUN, FFC, GSP, JAN, JAX, LIX, MRX, RAH, SHV, TAE.

Killer tornadoes

(Text below will be updated to include April tornado outbreak info as soon as possible. Map as of April 17.)

As of March 6, seven tornadoes have caused fatalities this year.

An EF4 hit Cookeville, Tenn., just before 2 a.m. March 3, causing 18 deaths and nearly 100 injuries. This was from the same storm that caused the long-track Nashville tornado, which was responsible for five deaths.

Before this event happened, the deadliest were a pair of EF2s that both killed three each. They happened in Louisiana and Alabama during the major tornado outbreak of Jan. 11.

Notable tornadoes of 2020

Two powerful long-track tornadoes occurred in south-central Mississippi on April 12. One has been rated an EF4. Multiple killer tornadoes also sliced across South Carolina at night, after one struck parts of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The first violent tornado of the year, an EF4, hit Putnam County in Tennessee and an EF3 tornado struck Nashville. These twisters were part of a regional tornado event late March 2 into March 3.

Through April 14, there have been at least 51 confirmed strong (EF2+) tornadoes, two of which were violent (EF4+).

Hot zones

(Will be updated to include April tornado outbreak as soon as possible)

The places that have seen “hatched” tornado threat from the Storm Prediction Center, issued for an emphasized risk of strong tornadoes.

Strong tornado risk days: Jan 10 | Jan 11 | Feb 5 |

Ark-La-Tex to the Mid-South focus so far. Parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida (sliver), Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee (sliver), and Texas have been outlooked for the risk of strong tornadoes.

It’s worth noting the deadliest tornado of the year occurred on a day without strong tornado hatching in the outlook.

Postscript

This is one of those projects you work on for a long time and it’s still not quite what you were hoping for. As such, we continue to fiddle with it.

For 2020, this page will end up more a compendium of links and quick-hitting stats. When there’s reason to map things, we’ll do it. As usual, the folks over at Wikipedia do a great job with details. Our maps include data from Iowa Environmental Mesonet, an amazing site that archives Weather Service products.

Note: Will be updated as warranted.