List of tornadoes striking downtown areas of large cities

This article is a list of tornadoes that have impacted the central business district (downtown or city centre) of a large city (that is, one having at least 50,000 people, not counting suburbs or outlying communities, at the time of the storm).

It is a common 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] Many of the tornadoes listed were extremely destructive or caused numerous casualties, and the occurrence of a catastrophic event somewhere is inevitable.^[2]

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 and outward gush of wind, which cause 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", "city centre", or "central business district" consisting of very high population density and mid to high-rises, 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 complicate the record.

For the list of cities that are not listed here for certain reasons, see below.

North America

Note: The F-Scale was superseded by the EF scale in the U.S. on February 1, 2007, and in Canada on April 18, 2013
For tornadoes and cities in: United States, Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, Cuba, Central America, and The Caribbean

South America

South America has no default tornado strength measurement system, so the storms here will be listed using the Fujita Scale.

Europe

Note: The UK uses the TORRO scale.

Africa

Africa has no default tornado strength measurement system, so the storms here will be listed using the Fujita Scale.

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.^[259]

Oceania

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). The tornado that hit Grand Valley, Ontario is not listed for similar reasons. Similarly, the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak that spawned the deadly F5 tornado which struck Oklahoma City and some of its suburbs, including Moore and Midwest City, is not listed because it did not reach the downtown core of Oklahoma City.

Similarly, the downtown areas of two then-small towns (now large cities) in North Carolina were struck during the 1884 Enigma outbreak: Concord and Cary. Downtown Concord was struck a second time by a tornado in May 1936.^{[301][302][303]}

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. 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).

The 1998 tornado that hit Spencer, South Dakota, killing 6 people, the 2000 tornado that hit a campground, killing 12 people, the 2007 tornado that hit Greensburg, Kansas, killing 11 people, the Elie, Manitoba tornado that hit Elie, Manitoba in 2007 with no fatalities, and the 2009 tornado that hit Durham, Ontario, killing one person, are not listed because none of these tornadoes hit a metropolitan area that had a population higher than 50,000. The Southern Ontario tornado outbreak of 2005 that hit Toronto was not confirmed and is therefore not listed.

Another notable absence is the July 7, 1915 storm that struck Cincinnati, 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.^[304]

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.

On September 8, 2010, Tropical Storm Hermine went over the state of Texas and produced a few tornadoes in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. One notable tornado was located in an industrialized area west of downtown Dallas before it lifted up over Interstate 35E just south of Dallas Love Field. However the EF-2 tornado was only about 3–4 miles away and did not strike the immediate downtown Dallas area.

See also

• List of tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
  • List of European tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
  • List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
    • List of Canadian tornadoes
  • List of Southern Hemisphere tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
• List of F5 and EF5 tornadoes
• Urban climate and climatology

References

External links

• Downtown Tornadoes (Storm Prediction Center)
• Major cities not immune from twisters (USA Today)