Ag Weather Forum

A review of tornado reports so far in 2025 shows the number is well above average and in the top three for the period dating back to 2010. This has been a volatile spring indeed.

According to the NOAA Storm Prediction Center (headquartered in Norman, Oklahoma), 1,010 tornado local storm reports (LSRs) so far this year have been logged through Monday, May 26, 2025. That total is the third-highest in the past 15 years dating to 2010. The 2025 total so far is almost 40% higher than the average of 727 tornado LSRs for the same period. The record tornado count for the same time frame was set in 2011 with 1,662 tornado LSRs. The second-highest count was last year, 2024 with 1,018 tornado LSRs through May 26. (The LSR reports are preliminary.)

State tornado reports through May 20, 2025, show four states have had particularly high numbers, according to the France-based reporting service AFP: Mississippi with 97 reports; Illinois with 93; Missouri with 89; and Texas with 87 tornado reports. However, tornado outbreaks with significant damage have occurred in many other locations east of the Rockies, especially in the Delta and Mid-South regions.

Tornado counts in recent years have led to the recognition of a new corridor for high tornado counts -- "Dixie Alley" -- which takes in Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and western Tennessee. This alteration of regional tornado focus indicates a migration east of the Southern Plains "Tornado Alley" comprised of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Illinois and Missouri have a tornado history, including the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, the deadliest tornado in recorded U.S. history.

We have also seen a higher number of violent tornadoes -- tornadoes with the two highest ratings on the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF4 or EF5 -- so far in 2025 compared to average. A May 21, 2025, Weather Underground article by Chris Dolce noted EF4 and EF5 tornadoes are "... capable of devastating damage, such as crushing and throwing vehicles, leveling well-built homes, even sweeping foundations clean. These select few tornadoes are estimated to have peak winds of 166 mph or higher." So far in 2025, there have been five EF4 tornadoes recorded. In the past 10 years since 2015, the count of violent tornadoes for the entire year has ranged from zero to six. So, 2025 is on the higher end of that 10-year range. The average is about three per year.

The EF4 tornadoes so far in 2025 include two that struck northern Arkansas during the night of March 14. The next day, EF4 damage was confirmed from a tornado that tracked from northeastern Louisiana to south-central Mississippi. Two more EF4 tornadoes were confirmed on May 16 -- one in southern Illinois and another that devastated parts of two counties in southeastern Kentucky.

Tornado numbers for the entire year in the two years that surpass 2025 to this point are 1,910 in 2024 and 2,240 in 2011.

Bryce Anderson can be reached at bryce.anderson@dtn.com

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