Tornado season is the indicator that spring has started, but spring doesn’t come in quietly. It can be destructive and devastating. The start of 2026 has had a notably high number of tornadoes and a very active start, with over 540 to 730 confirmed tornadoes as of 2026. This is unusually high, especially before peak tornado season.

There are 6 category ratings for tornadoes, with the EF, or Enhanced Fujita Scale, ranging from EF0 (65-85 mph), EF1 (86-110 mph), EF2 (111-135 mph), EF3 (136-165 mph), EF4 (166-200 mph), and EF5 (>200 mph). For a short time, there were two tornadoes with a rating of EF6, the 1970 Lubbock, Texas tornado (May 11, 1970), and the 1974 Xenia, Ohio tornado (April 3, 1974). The Xenia tornado occurred during the Super Outbreak, which was a series of tornadoes that caused severe damage to the Midwestern, southern, and eastern United States and Ontario, Canada, on April 3-4, 1974. It consisted of 148+ tornadoes and resulted in more than $1 billion in damage and 330 deaths.

Some tornados that have become “famous” include the Xenia tornado, the 1925 Tri-State tornado, the Bridge Creek-Moore Tornado (May 3, 1999), the Joplin Tornado (May 22, 2011), the El Reno Tornado (May 24, 2011 & May 31, 2013), the Jarrell Tornado (May 27, 1997), and the Tupelo and Gainesville Tornadoes (April 5-6, 1936). These tornadoes have all been highly destructive and devastating. One such example, the Tri-State, took 695 lives and caused catastrophic damage over a 219-mile path. 

Another, like the El Reno, holds the record for being the widest tornado ever recorded at 2.6 miles wide. The El Reno also killed the TWISTEX storm chasing team. Researcher Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras, and Carl Young all died when the rapidly expanding and erratic multi-vortex tornado caught their vehicle. Their last words, before the audio recording got cut, was, “we’re gonna die, we’re gonna die.” And chilling footage from their friend, Dan Robinson’s dashcam, faintly captures the moment when the TWISTEX vehicles’ headlights disappear into the tornado.

While these tornadoes are notable, they were mostly around the Tornado Ally region. None of them are based near Pennsylvania, but our state is not “tornado dry.” Pennsylvania also had a tornado outbreak. 40 years ago, May 31, 1985, the deadliest tornado outbreak hit. Of the 44 tornadoes, eight were rated EF4 and one was rated an EF5, the first and only EF5 on record for Pennsylvania. One EF4 tornado tracked 69 miles from Penfield to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and destroyed an estimated 88,000 trees in the Moshannon State Forest. One massive twister moved from Ohio into Pennsylvania, destroying everything in its path, and still stands as the only EF5 tornado on the Fujita Scale to strike Pennsylvania. This series of storms remains Pennsylvania’s deadliest severe weather outbreak to this day.