My Top 5 Tornado Outbreaks of 2010

[tornadotony]

The year 2010 started exceptionally quietly with regards to tornado activity in the lower 48. A minor outbreak struck TX and LA on January 20th, with another couple tornadoes on the 21st. The only tornado in February was a weak EF0 in California. The rather quiet trend continued all the way up until the end of April. From then until the beginning of August, tornadoes pummelled the United States with incredible magnitude and fury, with additional significant outbreaks in September, October, and November. The end result was an average season in terms of total number of tornadoes, but an extremely above average season in terms of violent (EF4+) tornadoes. To date, 13 EF4 tornadoes have struck the lower 48. The 30-year average is 7, and 13 is the highest number of violent tornadoes since 1999, which also had 13. The last year with more violent tornadoes was 1990, with 15. Incredibly, only 36 people were killed by tornadoes in 2010, which is largely due to most of the intense tornadoes impacting sparsely populated areas.

This thread contains a subjective list of the top five outbreaks of 2010. It's based on violence, human impact, magnitude, and personal significance.

5) October 26th (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia)

Though no fatalities were produced during this outbreak, nor were there a ton of significant tornadoes (only 6 EF2s), this outbreak stands out. It was associated with a 955.2mb sfc low in Minnesota and currently stands as either the largest or second largest October tornado outbreak in history, pending final statistics. The outbreak started in nrn IL in the early morning hours of the 26th with an EF2 tornado in the far southern Chicago suburb of Peotone, destroying a house. From then on, many hours passed where literally 9-12 tornado warnings were in effect simultaneously. Though not a major disaster, the time of year and the widespread nature of this event place it at #5.

4) May 10th (Oklahoma, Kansas)

The second-largest outbreak in Oklahoma history was also the second-largest outbreak of the year. With 67 tornadoes, 55 of them in Oklahoma, this outbreak was certainly a noteworthy one. Four EF3s and 2 EF4s struck Oklahoma on this afternoon and evening. The two EF4s, unfortunately, both struck the OKC metro around rush hour. The first struck Moore, SE OKC, and Choctaw, and the second struck Norman, Lake Thunderbird, Little Axe, and Pink. The Moore tornado killed two, and the Norman tornado killed one.

This outbreak makes the list for several reasons. The first being that, at one point, an EF2, EF3, and both EF4s were on the ground simultaneously near the Twin Lakes Doppler radar, producing one of the most incredible images ever captured on a WSR-88D. The second is the incredible motion of these storms, moving from west to east at 60 MPH. The third is the sheer magnitude of the outbreak in light of, again, relatively few fatalities. The 3 fatalities from the EF4s were the only fatalities of the outbreak. Finally, with several hundred million dollars in damage, this was the costliest outbreak of 2010.

3) June 17th (North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin)

The largest and most violent outbreak of 2010 marks one of the #2 spots on this list. With 74 tornadoes, June 17th was the largest outbreak of 2010. With four EF4 tornadoes, this outbreak produced the high number of violent tornadoes since Super Tuesday 2008. Luckily, because this outbreak occurred mostly during daylight hours and in fairly rural areas, there were only 3 fatalities. All three of the fatalities were in Minnesota, marking the first time the state had seen multiple fatalities from tornadoes in one day since the Comfrey and St. Peter tornadoes of March 29th, 1998.

The state of Minnesota set a record for most tornadoes in a single day for the state, with 45. Three of the four EF4 tornadoes touched down in the state, with EF4 strikes on the towns of Wadena and Almora in the western part of the state. The Almora tornado killed 1 person. The third EF4 was outside Albert Lea in southern MN and killed one person. That tornado was part of three complex tornado families that ravaged the southern part of the state that evening with multiple strong-violent tornadoes. The forth EF4 of the outbreak was in eastern ND west of Grand Forks. This high-end EF4 caused a single-family home to completely vanish. Luckily, no one was home at the time.

The violence of this outbreak, in light of the small fatality count, underscores the luck that was had in most of 2010, with many extremely intense tornadoes in sparsely populated areas.

2) June 5th-6th (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine)

This outbreak makes the list for several reasons. First off, though the time of year was not odd for the region struck, the time of day was. The majority of tornadoes struck after sundown the night of the 5th and into the early morning of the 6th. Secondly, the longitudinal extent of the outbreak that could be associated with the singular sfc baroclinicity zone was pretty mindblowing.

This day had been pegged days in advance as a potential severe weather/tornado day. As the day wore on, however, several kinks were thrown into the setup. The main one was cloudcover. Was the cloud shield going to prevent enough instability from being in place for a significant severe weather event? As the afternoon wore on, it indeed appeared so. Around 7 PM, however, the game changed radically. As a region of enhanced lift progressed across the mid-Mississippi valley an into the lower Great Lakes, and as the low-level jet intensified, multiple intense tornadic supercells developed from eastern Iowa, across northern Illinois, southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and northern Ohio.

The most intense tornado of the episode was also the 2nd-deadliest tornado of 2010. This high-end EF4 tornado struck Lake Township and Millbury in Wood County, OH, at 11:15 PM EDT, killing 7 people. The most incredible supercell of the event, however, struck northern Illinois. This storm traveled across Putnam, Marshall, La Salle, Livingston, and Kankakee Counties, producing ten tornadoes, 5 of which were EF2 or EF3 intensity. EF2s hit the towns of Streator in Dwight, with one fatality in Dwight. There were three instances of satellite tornadoes with this storm also; once near Streator, once near Dwight, and then once outside St. Anne. The EF3 tornadoes struck northern Livingston County and southern Kankakee County producing significant damage.

In all, 44 tornadoes were confirmed in this outbreak, with 8 fatalities and well over $100 million in damage. It is most incredible that there were not more fatalities, especially in northern IN, where strong (EF3) tornadoes struck during the 3 AM EDT hour in an area where overnight tornadoes are quite uncommon.

1) April 23rd-25th (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina)

The number #1 outbreak on this list actually ties for the smallest in terms of total number of tornadoes with #2, at 44 confirmed. The tornadoes that did occur, however, were spectacular. Taking the cake in this outbreak (and in the year 2010) was a tornado that touched down in Madison Parish, LA, around 11:30 AM CDT on the 24th. This tornado would travel 149.25 miles, grow to 1.75 miles wide, and reach EF4 intensity as it traveled NE at 60 MPH. This tornado, of course, was the infamous Yazoo City tornado. It killed 10 people.

Later that night, a rash of severe EF3-EF4 tornadoes struck northern Alabama. Three of these tornadoes, 2 EF3 and 1 EF4, struck DeKalb County along the Georgia border. Amazingly, though the damage was widespread and severe, there were no fatalities. Coincidentally, the pattern and subsequent results for this outbreak were very similar to an outbreak that struck the same area 102 years to the day prior to the outbreak, on April 24th, 1908.

With 10 fatalities, numerous EF3-EF4 tornadoes, and the epic Yazoo City tornado, this outbreak tops the list for 2010.

[on_wx]

Six of Ontario's nine confirmed tornadoes in 2010 occurred on June 5-6. Four of them in Essex County across the river from Detroit.

[Thundersnow12]

just curious why you didn't include 4/22 in #1?

nicely done write up, Tony.

[tornadotony]

just curious why you didn't include 4/22 in #1?

nicely done write up, Tony.

Even though it was the same system, there was enough of a separation between tornadoes for each event that 4/22 counts as a separate outbreak.

And thanks!

[Hoosier]

Even though it was the same system, there was enough of a separation between tornadoes for each event that 4/22 counts as a separate outbreak.

And thanks!

Nice list. I remember some of those June 5-6 soundings like it was yesterday.

[Harry]

Nice work Tony..

Knowing this area as i do i think the time of day/night that the tornado hit here ( June 6th ) was the saving grace from more injuries and such. Reason being is the part of town it passed through ( across two of the main highways ) is alot more busier during the day into the evenings hours especially with traffic. Had the tornado took the same exact track at say 5/6pm i think the results as far as injuries go would have been a bit different. Keep in mind there has been a ton of false alerts in recent years here which i believe has left a false sense of security with people who seem to ignore the sirens/warning anymore or atleast did till this. Plus it was the 1st Saturday of the month which is when they always fire the sirens up for testing. Even a mile to the north probably would have resulted in alot more damage/injuries as well. Got lucky.. Hopefully a good wake up call to the people around here that they can and do happen anywhere at anytime.

[Srain]

Good write up, Tony. How could we forget that Saturday morning tracking from Madison Parish to Yazoo City.

[Thundersnow12]

Nice list. I remember some of those June 5-6 soundings like it was yesterday.

your telling me...lol I've probably went through the thread of that back on eastern atleast 5 times lol

[Hoosier]

Nice work Tony..

Knowing this area as i do i think the time of day/night that the tornado hit here ( June 6th ) was the saving grace from more injuries and such. Reason being is the part of town it passed through ( across two of the main highways ) is alot more busier during the day into the evenings hours especially with traffic. Had the tornado took the same exact track at say 5/6pm i think the results as far as injuries go would have been a bit different. Keep in mind there has been a ton of false alerts in recent years here which i believe has left a false sense of security with people who seem to ignore the sirens/warning anymore or atleast did till this. Plus it was the 1st Saturday of the month which is when they always fire the sirens up for testing. Even a mile to the north probably would have resulted in alot more damage/injuries as well. Got lucky.. Hopefully a good wake up call to the people around here that they can and do happen anywhere at anytime.

Guess it's good that one was "only" EF1.

I tried to intercept the EF3 that eventually swiped Grissom Air Force Base but I literally didn't go out the door until the storm was passing my longitude. Never could quite catch up to it but did see what appeared to be a lit up funnel/tornado well in the distance when it was farther west.

[Hoosier]

your telling me...lol I've probably went through the thread of that back on eastern atleast 5 times lol

Tony and I had a private conversation that day... we were both pretty concerned and felt the threat was being underplayed. It could've been worse though if those Illinois tornadoes were shifted a bit north into the southern Chi metro...

[Indystorm]

Good work as always Tony. I have to say that June 23 was the local day to shine IMBY with 5 confirmed tornadoes in Elkhart county and a total of 7 in the IWX warning area.

[Harry]

Guess it's good that one was "only" EF1.

I tried to intercept the EF3 that eventually swiped Grissom Air Force Base but I literally didn't go out the door until the storm was passing my longitude. Never could quite catch up to it but did see what appeared to be a lit up funnel/tornado well in the distance when it was farther west.

Oh yeah for sure. Thankfully as well it took a track in a quiet zone and or where there is less things to hit. A block or two south or north may have made a big difference as you can see in that image. Too bad it was not during daylight hours just for the sake of being able to see it.

[Mallow]

6) Oregon tornado outbreak of 12/14/2010

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/aumsville.php

[tornadotony]

6) Oregon tornado outbreak of 12/14/2010

http://www.wrh.noaa....r/aumsville.php

Haha. No. #6 (and really I could have made it 5a) would be the 10/6 Arizona outbreak.

[Thundersnow12]

Tony and I had a private conversation that day... we were both pretty concerned and felt the threat was being underplayed. It could've been worse though if those Illinois tornadoes were shifted a bit north into the southern Chi metro...

I dont want to think about how bad that could of been if it was between 80 and 88....geez.

[thewxmann]

Superb writeup Tony. Always enjoy your year-end recaps, they are a good read and its nice to reflect upon the season. One question though: for June 17, weren't all three fatalities in MN?

[tornadotony]

Superb writeup Tony. Always enjoy your year-end recaps, they are a good read and its nice to reflect upon the season. One question though: for June 17, weren't all three fatalities in MN?

Ah yes. The 3rd was in the Mentor EF3.

[Hoosier]

I dont want to think about how bad that could of been if it was between 80 and 88....geez.

It's only a matter of time until there's a big outbreak in the densely populated areas of northeast IL. History shows that and the relative proximity to tornado alley hasn't changed. There's been some close calls such as 6/7/08 but nothing really major there in the last 15+ years. Meanwhile, the urban sprawl continues. Actually, it doesn't even take a large outbreak to cause some problems...you put a few strong/violent tornadoes in the right places and it has the potential to cause a lot of property losses at minimum.

I'm actually working on something right now regarding population and tornado trends for the Chicago and Indy metro areas. Perhaps I'll share more at some point.

[Thundersnow12]

It's only a matter of time until there's a big outbreak in the densely populated areas of northeast IL. History shows that and the relative proximity to tornado alley hasn't changed. There's been some close calls such as 6/7/08 but nothing really major there in the last 15+ years. Meanwhile, the urban sprawl continues. Actually, it doesn't even take a large outbreak to cause some problems...you put a few strong/violent tornadoes in the right places and it has the potential to cause a lot of property losses at minimum.

I'm actually working on something right now regarding population and tornado trends for the Chicago and Indy metro areas. Perhaps I'll share more at some point.

and with some supercells the past few years taking tracks across the area and being close to putting down tornadoes. I agree, its only a matter of time.

as bad as it sounds, I hope I'm here lol

[Danny Neal]

I chased a majority of these events....

#4 -

#3 -

#2 -

#1 -

<---- I grouped 4/22 in... sure it was several hours earlier, but was part of the same storm system.

*Sorry I found I can't embed more in here so you will have to click on the link to watch them

5/19 was another outbreak of tornadoes in nearly the same areas affected on 5/10. Unfortunately I busted hardcore that day in OK so I don't have much to add for that.

5/22 wasn't a tornado outbreak per say..... just a storm that went absolutely insane after rooting on the warm front and traveling along it.

[Danny Neal]

We at Convective Addiction are developing new software and have actually logged all of these events via our new radar software and also integrated automatic GPS logging.....

4/22 - White Car - Skip Talbot - Black Car - Neal/Adam Lucio

5/10 - White Car - Skip Talbot - Black Car - Neal/Lucio/Nelson

[Danny Neal]

5/22 - White Car - Talbot - Black Car - Neal/Lucio/Holcomb

6/17 - White Car - Talbot/Neal - Black Car - Lucio

Radar software creator: Skip Talbot. We plan on implementing it along with other things in Convective Addiction next year. Still working out kinks but as you can see it makes tracking storms and logging your position much easier.

Just adding my two cents.....

[patrick7032]

The year 2010 started exceptionally quietly with regards to tornado activity in the lower 48. A minor outbreak struck TX and LA on January 20th, with another couple tornadoes on the 21st. The only tornado in February was a weak EF0 in California. The rather quiet trend continued all the way up until the end of April. From then until the beginning of August, tornadoes pummelled the United States with incredible magnitude and fury, with additional significant outbreaks in September, October, and November. The end result was an average season in terms of total number of tornadoes, but an extremely above average season in terms of violent (EF4+) tornadoes. To date, 13 EF4 tornadoes have struck the lower 48. The 30-year average is 7, and 13 is the highest number of violent tornadoes since 1999, which also had 13. The last year with more violent tornadoes was 1990, with 15. Incredibly, only 36 people were killed by tornadoes in 2010, which is largely due to most of the intense tornadoes impacting sparsely populated areas.

This thread contains a subjective list of the top five outbreaks of 2010. It's based on violence, human impact, magnitude, and personal significance.

5) October 26th (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia)

Though no fatalities were produced during this outbreak, nor were there a ton of significant tornadoes (only 6 EF2s), this outbreak stands out. It was associated with a 955.2mb sfc low in Minnesota and currently stands as either the largest or second largest October tornado outbreak in history, pending final statistics. The outbreak started in nrn IL in the early morning hours of the 26th with an EF2 tornado in the far southern Chicago suburb of Peotone, destroying a house. From then on, many hours passed where literally 9-12 tornado warnings were in effect simultaneously. Though not a major disaster, the time of year and the widespread nature of this event place it at #5.

4) May 10th (Oklahoma, Kansas)

The second-largest outbreak in Oklahoma history was also the second-largest outbreak of the year. With 67 tornadoes, 55 of them in Oklahoma, this outbreak was certainly a noteworthy one. Four EF3s and 2 EF4s struck Oklahoma on this afternoon and evening. The two EF4s, unfortunately, both struck the OKC metro around rush hour. The first struck Moore, SE OKC, and Choctaw, and the second struck Norman, Lake Thunderbird, Little Axe, and Pink. The Moore tornado killed two, and the Norman tornado killed one.

This outbreak makes the list for several reasons. The first being that, at one point, an EF2, EF3, and both EF4s were on the ground simultaneously near the Twin Lakes Doppler radar, producing one of the most incredible images ever captured on a WSR-88D. The second is the incredible motion of these storms, moving from west to east at 60 MPH. The third is the sheer magnitude of the outbreak in light of, again, relatively few fatalities. The 3 fatalities from the EF4s were the only fatalities of the outbreak. Finally, with several hundred million dollars in damage, this was the costliest outbreak of 2010.

3) June 17th (North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin)

The largest and most violent outbreak of 2010 marks one of the #2 spots on this list. With 74 tornadoes, June 17th was the largest outbreak of 2010. With four EF4 tornadoes, this outbreak produced the high number of violent tornadoes since Super Tuesday 2008. Luckily, because this outbreak occurred mostly during daylight hours and in fairly rural areas, there were only 3 fatalities. All three of the fatalities were in Minnesota, marking the first time the state had seen multiple fatalities from tornadoes in one day since the Comfrey and St. Peter tornadoes of March 29th, 1998.

The state of Minnesota set a record for most tornadoes in a single day for the state, with 45. Three of the four EF4 tornadoes touched down in the state, with EF4 strikes on the towns of Wadena and Almora in the western part of the state. The Almora tornado killed 1 person. The third EF4 was outside Albert Lea in southern MN and killed one person. That tornado was part of three complex tornado families that ravaged the southern part of the state that evening with multiple strong-violent tornadoes. The forth EF4 of the outbreak was in eastern ND west of Grand Forks. This high-end EF4 caused a single-family home to completely vanish. Luckily, no one was home at the time.

The violence of this outbreak, in light of the small fatality count, underscores the luck that was had in most of 2010, with many extremely intense tornadoes in sparsely populated areas.

2) June 5th-6th (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine)

This outbreak makes the list for several reasons. First off, though the time of year was not odd for the region struck, the time of day was. The majority of tornadoes struck after sundown the night of the 5th and into the early morning of the 6th. Secondly, the longitudinal extent of the outbreak that could be associated with the singular sfc baroclinicity zone was pretty mindblowing.

This day had been pegged days in advance as a potential severe weather/tornado day. As the day wore on, however, several kinks were thrown into the setup. The main one was cloudcover. Was the cloud shield going to prevent enough instability from being in place for a significant severe weather event? As the afternoon wore on, it indeed appeared so. Around 7 PM, however, the game changed radically. As a region of enhanced lift progressed across the mid-Mississippi valley an into the lower Great Lakes, and as the low-level jet intensified, multiple intense tornadic supercells developed from eastern Iowa, across northern Illinois, southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and northern Ohio.

The most intense tornado of the episode was also the 2nd-deadliest tornado of 2010. This high-end EF4 tornado struck Lake Township and Millbury in Wood County, OH, at 11:15 PM EDT, killing 7 people. The most incredible supercell of the event, however, struck northern Illinois. This storm traveled across Putnam, Marshall, La Salle, Livingston, and Kankakee Counties, producing ten tornadoes, 5 of which were EF2 or EF3 intensity. EF2s hit the towns of Streator in Dwight, with one fatality in Dwight. There were three instances of satellite tornadoes with this storm also; once near Streator, once near Dwight, and then once outside St. Anne. The EF3 tornadoes struck northern Livingston County and southern Kankakee County producing significant damage.

In all, 44 tornadoes were confirmed in this outbreak, with 8 fatalities and well over $100 million in damage. It is most incredible that there were not more fatalities, especially in northern IN, where strong (EF3) tornadoes struck during the 3 AM EDT hour in an area where overnight tornadoes are quite uncommon.

1) April 23rd-25th (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina)

The number #1 outbreak on this list actually ties for the smallest in terms of total number of tornadoes with #2, at 44 confirmed. The tornadoes that did occur, however, were spectacular. Taking the cake in this outbreak (and in the year 2010) was a tornado that touched down in Madison Parish, LA, around 11:30 AM CDT on the 24th. This tornado would travel 149.25 miles, grow to 1.75 miles wide, and reach EF4 intensity as it traveled NE at 60 MPH. This tornado, of course, was the infamous Yazoo City tornado. It killed 10 people.

Later that night, a rash of severe EF3-EF4 tornadoes struck northern Alabama. Three of these tornadoes, 2 EF3 and 1 EF4, struck DeKalb County along the Georgia border. Amazingly, though the damage was widespread and severe, there were no fatalities. Coincidentally, the pattern and subsequent results for this outbreak were very similar to an outbreak that struck the same area 102 years to the day prior to the outbreak, on April 24th, 1908.

With 10 fatalities, numerous EF3-EF4 tornadoes, and the epic Yazoo City tornado, this outbreak tops the list for 2010.

Tony do you have a link to that Twin Lakes image for the May 10th? Those were good storms, but they were moving mainly northeast until the very end. Caught the remnants of the EF3 from Oklahoma that produced a 100 yd wide EF1 just across the border in Arkansas City, KS. FWIW the June outbreak we did have a high end EF2 (1 mph short of an EF3 in Monroe County just south of metro).

[Danny Neal]

Tony do you have a link to that Twin Lakes image for the May 10th? Those were good storms, but they were moving mainly northeast until the very end. Caught the remnants of the EF3 from Oklahoma that produced a 100 yd wide EF1 just across the border in Arkansas City, KS. FWIW the June outbreak we did have a high end EF2 (1 mph short of an EF3 in Monroe County just south of metro).

Are you looking for a radar loop of the event? or something else.... If you are looking for a loop. We have provided an overview of N. OK and portions of far S. KS. But I gather you are looking for KTLX correct?

If not.... disregard lol

[patrick7032]

Tony do you have a link to that Twin Lakes image for the May 10th? Those were good storms, but they were moving mainly northeast until the very end. Caught the remnants of the EF3 from Oklahoma that produced a 100 yd wide EF1 just across the border in Arkansas City, KS. FWIW the June outbreak we did have a high end EF2 (1 mph short of an EF3 in Monroe County just south of metro).

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=dtx&storyid=53393&source=0

[patrick7032]

This was a great post storm write up for the May 10th event in the ICT CWA.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ict/scripts/viewstory.php?STORY_NUMBER=2010051322

[tornadotony]

Tony do you have a link to that Twin Lakes image for the May 10th? Those were good storms, but they were moving mainly northeast until the very end. Caught the remnants of the EF3 from Oklahoma that produced a 100 yd wide EF1 just across the border in Arkansas City, KS. FWIW the June outbreak we did have a high end EF2 (1 mph short of an EF3 in Monroe County just south of metro).

[patrick7032]

Nice and thanks....yeah I was looking for the SRM since I was driving and my partner was radar operator....so I didn't see the SRM as much....NICE.

[TheWeatherPimp]

Obviously June 5th will always have a special place in my heart

St Anne, Illinois - EF3 - First night time tornado chase and it definitely paid off. Amazing experience.

[Danny Neal]

Obviously June 5th will always have a special place in my heart

St Anne, Illinois - EF3 - First night time tornado chase and it definitely paid off. Amazing experience.

Where are you at exactly? My parents just moved down to the St. Anne area. They had just left their new house (they live about 4000E and 7500S) so 3 miles SSW of the touchdown... ...