This page documents the tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

es and tornado outbreak

Tornado outbreak

While there is no single agreed upon definition, generally at least 6-10 tornadoes produced by the same synoptic scale weather system is considered a tornado outbreak. The tornadoes usually occur within the same day, or continue into the early morning hours of the succeeding day, and within the...

s of 1992, primarily in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Most tornadoes form in the U.S., although some events may take place internationally. Tornado statistics for older years like this often appear significantly lower than modern years due to fewer reports or confirmed tornadoes, however by the 1990s tornado statistics were coming closer to the numbers we see today.

Synopsis

The Tornado "Season" of 1992 was a late bloomer. Numbers were low thru April, and even May saw a relatively low number of tornadoes. However June set a then record for tornadoes with 399 in one month (eclipsed in May 2003). July and August continued to see well above average numbers of tornadoes. Finally, November saw a major outbreak from the 21st to 23rd resulting in 26 deaths.

Events

Confirmed tornado total for the entire year 1992 in the United States.

March

There were 55 tornadoes confirmed in the US in March. On March 10, five people were killed by two tornadoes in Mississippi and Alabama (both F3 tornadoes).

June

There were 399 tornadoes confirmed in the US in June. On June 27, an F4 tornado struck the city of Fritch, Texas. None were killed, but the city sustained major damage. There is incredible video of this tornado from a man named Gary Kays available on YouTube at this time as the tornado in its early stages strikes his home.

June 14–18

The Mid-June 1992 tornado outbreak was a one of the largest tornado outbreaks on record, affecting portions of the Central United States from June 14 to June 18, 1992. The outbreak began on June 14 when six tornadoes touched down in Colorado and Idaho. Fifty-eight tornadoes were reported across portions of the Great Plains on June 15, and 65 more were reported over much of the central U.S. on June 16. The 123 tornadoes that touched down on June 15–16 make that two-day span the 3rd largest two-day tornado outbreak in U.S. history behind only the Super Outbreak of April 3–4, 1974 and the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence. Twenty-eight more tornadoes touched down on June 17, and 13 more touched down on June 18, giving this outbreak 170 confirmed tornadoes.

October

There were 34 tornadoes confirmed in the US in October. Four people were killed by two tornadoes in Pinellas County, Florida on October 3.

November 21–23

The November 1992 tornado outbreak was a three-day tornado outbreak that struck large parts of the eastern and Midwestern U.S. on November 21–23. Also sometimes referred to as the Widespread Outbreak (as was the Super Outbreak initially), this exceptionally long lasting and geographically large outbreak produced over $300 million in damage, along with 26 deaths and 641 injuries in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

External links

• U.S. tornadoes in 1992 - Tornado History Project
• Tornado deaths monthly