Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Interesting tornado facts

Tornado facts:

– About 20 (or 2 percent) of the 1000+ tornadoes that strike the United States each year contain winds of 200 m.p.h. or higher.

– The first confirmed tornado in the U.S. occurred on July 8, 1680, at about 2 pm EST. It touched down at Cambridge, Mass. The tornado funnel was filled with “stones, bushes, boughs, and other things”. It unroofed a barn and snapped many trees, killing one person.

– A “tornado outbreak” is defined as multiple tornado occurrences, usually ten or more, associated with a particular weather system (usually a low pressure system) as it moves across the country. The tornado outbreak of April 3-4, 1974 is the greatest in U.S. history: 148 separate tornadoes, including 48 killer tornadoes (315 fatalities) and 30 tornadoes reaching F4 or F5 intensity. The first tornado in this outbreak touched down near Morris, Ill.

– On March 18, 1925, the largest, longest, fastest, most destructive and most deadly tornado in U.S. history — the Great Tri-State Tornado — cut a 219-mile path from southeast Missouri across southern Illinois into southwest Indiana; 695 people died, at least 2,000 were injured. In all respects, this remarkable tornado stands in a class of its own.

http://blog.chicagoweathercenter.com/

The bad thing about tornadoes, well besides flattening your house, is they can take your fish into the next county.

When I lived in California a lot of friends from the Midwest asked if I was worried about earthquakes. I told them that I'd much prefer a small earthquake than a small tornado.

Having been thru the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak (one missed the lake house by 1/8 mile) I'd rather not repeat it.