A tornado's rating is not a measurement of its wind. It is an estimate made after the fact from the damage it left, by National Weather Service surveyors who compare what they find with standard descriptions. The Storm Prediction Center explains that Dr. T. Theodore Fujita developed the original F scale in 1971, relating degrees of damage to wind speed, and that it was replaced by the Enhanced Fujita scale, implemented in the US on February 1, 2007. The EF scale rates damage against 28 damage indicators, mostly kinds of buildings but also other structures and trees, each with its own degrees of damage.
The SPC tornado database behind this site holds 73,458 US tornadoes since 1950: 49,317 rated on the F scale before February 2007 and 24,141 on the EF scale since. The wind ranges below are the ones SPC publishes for each scale; the EF numbers were set by engineering study of what wind does to buildings, and the two scales' ranges differ because the original F-scale winds were assigned by interpolation rather than measured.
| Rating | F scale wind | F-scale tornadoes, 1950–Jan 2007 | EF scale wind (3-second gust) | EF-scale tornadoes, since Feb 2007 | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F0 / EF0 | 40–72 mph | 21,761 | 65–85 mph | 11,568 | 24 |
| F1 / EF1 | 73–112 mph | 16,873 | 86–110 mph | 8,306 | 254 |
| F2 / EF2 | 113–157 mph | 7,971 | 111–135 mph | 2,108 | 671 |
| F3 / EF3 | 158–207 mph | 2,143 | 136–165 mph | 526 | 1,498 |
| F4 / EF4 | 208–260 mph | 498 | 166–200 mph | 98 | 2,542 |
| F5 / EF5 | 261–318 mph | 50 | over 200 mph | 10 | 1,350 |
| Unrated | — | 21 | — | 1,525 | 2 |
F-scale winds are SPC's fastest quarter-mile figures; EF-scale winds are three-second gusts. Deaths include both scales.
Most tornadoes are weak; most deaths come from a few
58,508 of the 73,458 tornadoes (80%) were rated 0 or 1. Strong tornadoes, rated 3 or higher, number 3,325 (4.5%), and violent ones, rated 4 or 5, 656 (0.9%). Yet the violent tornadoes account for 3,892 of the 6,341 deaths in the record (61%).
Among rated tornadoes, 5.5% of F-scale tornadoes were rated F3 or higher, against 2.8% of EF-scale tornadoes rated EF3 or higher. Possible reasons include how many weak tornadoes get reported at all, which rose with radar and spotter networks, and how surveys were done; the SPC itself notes that even experienced surveyors and engineers often disagree on a tornado's rating. 1,525 tornadoes since 2007 have no rating in the file; SPC's notes on the scale point out how hard a rating is to assign when a tornado hits no structures.
Stronger tornadoes leave longer, wider paths
The database records each tornado's path length in miles and width in yards. On average, tornadoes rated 0 have paths of 1.2 miles and 48 yards; rated 2, 7.3 miles and 208 yards; rated 4, 28.4 miles and 635 yards; rated 5, 38.5 miles and 856 yards. Longer, wider paths cross more buildings, and because the rating comes from damage, a path that crosses more of them has more chances to produce the damage a high rating needs.
Every EF5 since 2007
Before the switch, 50 tornadoes in the database were rated F5, the first on May 11, 1953 and the last on May 3, 1999. Since February 2007 there have been 10 EF5 tornadoes, the most recent on June 20, 2025 in North Dakota. Each row links to the nearest city on this site, whose page lists every tornado within 25 miles of it.
| Date | State | Deaths | Injuries | Path length | Width | Nearest city |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 4, 2007 | Kansas | 11 | 63 | 25.8 mi | 3,000 yd | — |
| May 25, 2008 | Iowa | 9 | 70 | 40.97 mi | 2,100 yd | Parkersburg, IA (1 mi) |
| April 27, 2011 | Mississippi | 3 | 6 | 28.28 mi | 900 yd | Philadelphia, MS (2 mi) |
| April 27, 2011 | Alabama | 72 | 145 | 132 mi | 2,200 yd | Hackleburg, AL (0 mi) |
| April 27, 2011 | Mississippi | 23 | 137 | 37.3 mi | 1,320 yd | Smithville, MS (1 mi) |
| April 27, 2011 | Alabama | 25 | 0 | 33.66 mi | 1,320 yd | Rainsville, AL (0 mi) |
| May 22, 2011 | Missouri | 158 | 1,150 | 21.62 mi | 1,600 yd | Diamond, MO (0 mi) |
| May 24, 2011 | Oklahoma | 9 | 181 | 63.1 mi | 1,760 yd | Guthrie, OK (2 mi) |
| May 20, 2013 | Oklahoma | 24 | 212 | 13.85 mi | 1,900 yd | Moore, OK (2 mi) |
| June 20, 2025 | North Dakota | 3 | 0 | 12.1 mi | 1,850 yd | Lisbon, ND (10 mi) |
What a rating can and cannot say
Because the rating comes from damage, it records the worst damage found along the path, not the tornado's strength everywhere along it, and a tornado that hits nothing can only be rated by what it did hit. Ratings in the database are the ones SPC lists; they are not re-rated when the scale changes, so an F3 from 1970 and an EF3 from 2020 were judged by different standards.
The National Weather Service's tornado safety pages cover warnings and shelter. City pages on this site list every tornado whose path came within 25 miles, with its rating and distance.