Texas tornadoes per 2,500 square miles

Texas lies on the southern end of Tornado Alley. Texas' location between the Gulf of Mexico on the southeast and the Rocky Mountains on its western periphery make it a prime area for the formation of tornadoes. An average of 153 tornadoes touch down in Texas each year. Tornadoes may occur in any month, but occur most often during April, May and June between the hours of 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. During the period 1959-2000, 6,417 tornadoes were reported in Texas, with 63% occurring from April-June and 33% occurring in May. From 1950-2007, Texas encountered 84 tornadoes with a strength of F4 or higher (winds > 207 mph). Texas ranks 11th among the 50 states in density of tornadoes with an average of 5.7 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles, per year. The U.S. record for the fastest tornado winds occurred at Wichita Falls in northwest Texas on April, 2, 1958 with a wind speed of 258 mph. The current record for number of U.S. tornadoes in one year is 2004 with 1,817 tornadoes. The average number per year for the last 10 years is 1,270. Through June 14, 2008 preliminary numbers indicate 1,577 tornadoes have been reported in the U.S., with 595 reported during May 2008. The 2008 total is 240 short of the all-time record set in 2004.

Top 10 Texas counties with reported tornadoes from 1950-2007
County	Location	Major City	#
1. Harris	Gulf Coast	Houston	212
2. Hale	Panhandle	Plainview	116
3. Galveston	Gulf Coast	Galveston	106
4. Jefferson	Gulf Coast	Beaumont	100
5. Nueces	Gulf Coast	Corpus Christi	93
6. Dallas	North Texas	Dallas	82
7. Galveston	Gulf Coast	Galveston	79
8. Carson	Panhandle	Amarillo	79
9. Tarrant	North Texas	Ft. Worth	78
10. Lubbock	Panhandle	Lubbock	77

Top 10 strongest Texas tornadoes Tornado strength measured by the Fujita tornado intensity scale, distance measured in miles and width measured in feet
Counties affected	Area in Tx	Date	Fujita	Distance	Width	Fatalities	Injuries
1. McLennan	Central	5-11-53	5	20.9	1750	114	597
2. Lubbock	Panhandle	5-11-70	5	10.6	4000	26	500
3. Williamson	Central	5-27-97	5	5.1	1950	27	12
4. Wichita	Northwest	4-30-64	5	4.7	1500	7	111
5. Brown	Central	4-19-76	5	10.5	1320	0	11
6. McLennan, Bosque	Central	5-06-73	5	10.6	300	0	0
7. Archer, Wichita, Clay	Northwest	4-10-79	4	34.1	2640	42	1740
8. Swisher, Armstrong, Briscoe, Gray	Panhandle	4-02-82	4	65	2640	16	42
9. Tom Green	Southwest	5-11-53	4	9.9	2640	13	159
10. Lamar, Red River	North	4-02-82	4	23	750	10	170

Top 10 Texas tornadoes with longest distance on ground Tornado distance measured in miles on ground and width measured in feet
Counties affected	Area in Tx	Date	Distance	Width
1. Travis, Williamson, Milam, Robertson, Leon, Houston	Central	4/30/54	139.9	2640
2. Parmer, Randall, Armstrong, Carson, Gray	Panhandle	4/17/70	130.0	2640
3. Val Verde, Maverick, Kinney, Zavala, Frio	Big Bend	5/15/80	99.8	120
4. Hale, Floyd, Swisher, Briscoe, Hall, Donley	Panhandle	4/17/70	96.6	2640
5. Armstrong, Carson, Carson, Gray, Roberts, Hemphill	Panhandle	4/13/73	90.1	450
6. Parmer, Delta, Randall, Potter	Panhandle	5/24/57	70.1	100
7. Trinity, Angelina, Nacogdoches, San Augustine	Southeast	4/30/54	68.8	2650
8. Swisher, Briscoe, Armstrong, Donley, Gray	Panhandle	4/18/70	65.0	2640
9. Gregg, Harrison	East	5/03/58	59.2	1320
10. Williamson, Lee	Southeast	9/04/56	56.6	1750

Tornado statistics and chart data source: National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC