Tornadoes can occur anywhere, but the US is particularly prone to them. Our wide, Midwestern plains provide the perfect environmental conditions for tornado activity.

Scientists categorize the deadly and catastrophic storms by the Enhanced Fujita or EF scale which uses damage indicators to estimate wind speeds. The scale runs from EF-O (no damage) to EF-5 (severe destruction). The tornadoes on this list are all at least EF-4 storms.

The 21 tornadoes we’ve included on this list are all horrific in nature. Fast, strong, and deadly, they flattened businesses, destroyed homes, and cost residents billions of dollars.

1: Tri-State Tornado

The deadliest tornado in U.S. history was responsible for 695 deaths, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It occurred on March 18, 1925, and swept through three states, hence its name.

The storm hit Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri, leaving chaos and destruction in its wake. The tornado wrecked over 15,000 homes, and in today’s dollars, the property damage cost more than $1.4 billion.

2: Great Natchez Tornado

In 1840, a tornado touched down in Natchez, Mississippi, killing 314 people and injuring another 109. It is the only tornado in U.S. history to kill more than it wounded.

There was no national weather service in the United States at the time, so residents of Natchez had no warning of the impending storm. With no two-way radios or other communication systems, people who saw the tornado form or pass couldn’t even let their neighbors know what was about to happen, making it especially deadly.

3: East St. Louis Tornado

When architects designed the Eads Bridge in 1874, they claimed it was tornado-proof. And, to their credit, the St. Louis structure stood strong through a variety of storms and floods that struck the city over the next two decades. However, in 1896, the Eads Bridge met its match.

The East St. Louis Tornado was a monster storm, which scientists believe would have earned an E4 rating by today’s measurements. It cut a three-mile path through east St. Louis, destroying the Eads Bridge, killing at least 255 people, and injuring over a thousand more.

4: Tupelo Tornado

Tupelo, Mississippi, is no stranger to storms, but the 1936 tornado is one to be remembered. It started out as an E3 tornado in Arkansas. The storm then split into two tornados, an E3 and an E4 in Tennessee. By the time it reached Mississippi, it had picked up serious speed and touched down as an E5 twister moving at over 50 mph through the Tupelo area.

The Tupelo Tornado killed over 250 people as it plowed through residential neighborhoods, destroying several schools and churches. Many of the public buildings it hit were later found to have flawed construction. As such, the Tupelo Tornado was responsible for a needed update to the architectural codes in the area.

5: Gainesville Tornado

On April 6, 1936, 17 tornadoes barreled through the Southern U.S. The worst and most deadly was the one that struck down in Gainesville, Georgia.

The F4 storm tore through the town’s center, hitting the courthouse, several neighborhoods, and the business district. It ultimately killed over 200 people and left over 1200 homeless.

6: Woodward Tornado

The deadliest tornado to ever hit Oklahoma, and the sixth deadliest tornado in the U.S., was the Woodward Tornado of 1947. The F5 storm was over 1.8 miles wide and moved at over 50 miles per hour, giving the citizens of Woodward no time to flee.

The funnel plowed through over 100 city blocks, killing 181 people and destroying over 1,000 homes and businesses. The damage was so bad that there was little communication between Woodward and the outside world for some time, and some of the victims were never identified.

7: Joplin Tornado

Many of the most horrific and deadly tornadoes took place before the National Weather Service existed, so residents of tornado-prone areas had no warning of impending storms. The Joplin tornado is unique in that it occurred in 2011 when Americans had a full arsenal of storm-tracking technology at their fingertips. Still, the Joplin tornado was responsible for over 150 deaths.

On May 22, 2011, an E5 multiple vortex storm struck Joplin, Missouri. It stretched almost a mile wide and had winds that peaked at over 200 miles per hour. Everything in its six-mile path was destroyed, including 8,000 homes and businesses.

8: Dixie Tornado Outbreak

From April 23 to April 24, 1908, 34 tornadoes struck on the Eastern side of the Mississippi River. What was later coined the Dixie Tornado Outbreak killed over 300 people and injured 1,000 more.

The hardest hit city within the outbreak was Purvis, Mississippi. The town lost 55 residents and reports indicated all buildings within town limits were essentially leveled.

9: New Richmond Tornado

Wisconsin isn’t in a tornado-heavy part of the U.S., but that doesn’t make it completely immune to these dangerous storms. On June 12, 1899, one such storm touched ground in the town of New Richmond, causing an exceptional amount of destruction.

Though the tornado itself wasn’t especially large, it was especially deadly. The circus happened to be in town that day, and the population of New Richmond was much larger than usual. The tornado ripped right through the town’s center, killing 117 people in its path.

10: Flint-Beecher Tornado

A 2000 National Weather Service poll showed that the people of Michigan felt the Flint-Beecher Tornado of 1953 was the worst national disaster in Michigan in the 20th century. It was responsible for 116 deaths and nearly 850 injuries.

The Flint-Beecher Tornado struck on June 8, 1953. Weather scientists managed to forecast the event, even without radar, satellite data, or computer processing available. However, the tornado was still exceptionally destructive, especially to the Beecher suburb of Flint, Michigan, which was all but leveled by the storm.

11: Waco Tornado

At approximately 4:10 pm on May 11, 1953, a tornado touched down in the town of Lorena, Texas, in Waco County. It leveled a house before carving a path toward the city of Waco itself. There, it killed 114 people and injured another 597.

Heavy rainfall during and before the tornado made it nearly impossible for city residents to see the funnel approaching. And, because it happened to hit at the end of the work day, the city was crowded with residents. The destruction from the Waco Tornado was so severe that survivors waited up to 14 hours for rescue workers to reach them after the storm.

12: Goliad Tornado

Less than 100 miles southeast of San Antonio, Texas, sits the town of Goliad, the site of one of the deadliest tornados the Lone Star state has ever known. The Goliad Tornado hit at approximately 3:00 pm on May 18, 1902.

It was an otherwise quiet Sunday afternoon when the storm struck down. The funnel leveled the Methodist church, which was still in the middle of a service, killing almost everyone inside. There was no hospital in the town, which meant many perished from their injuries as well.

13: Omaha’s Easter Tornado

Easter of 1913 was set to be beautiful in Omaha, Nebraska. Temperatures were mild, and the sun kept poking through the clouds. But then, there was a sudden drop in barometric pressure, the temperature fell, and the rain came hard and heavy.

That was the only warning the citizens of Omaha received before a half-mile-wide tornado touched down. It cut through the residential areas of the city, killing 103 people and devastating over 2,000 homes.

14: Mattoon-Charleston Tornado

Original reports claimed the Mattoon-Charleston tornado was a single twister that carved a 293-mile path from the Mississippi River near Louisiana to Illinois and Indiana. However, researchers now believe it was a system of four to eight different tornadoes. The fact that it was a combination of several storms rather than one massive tornado made the day no less deadly, though.

The strongest tornado hit the Mattoon and Charleston areas of Illinois during the evening of May 26, 1917. Categorized as an F4 storm, it killed over 100 people and injured more than 600.

15: Shinston Tornado

The Shinston Tornado was one of the most violent and deadly tornadoes West Virginia has ever seen. It struck down on June 23, 1944, and original reports claimed it took 153 victims (later reports say the count was lower at 100 lives lost).

Regardless of which records you use, over 1,600 families were affected by the Shinston Tornado. They either lost their lives, their homes, or their places of business.

16: Marshfield Tornado

April 18, 1880, was a bad day for Montana residents. Tornadoes ravaged the central and southwestern portion of the state, sometimes occurring within ten minutes of each other and taking parallel paths.

The most destructive essentially leveled the town of Marshfield. Ninety-nine people lost their lives, and nearly every building was either badly damaged or destroyed.

17: 1903 Gainesville Tornado

Gainesville, Georgia, is no stranger to tornadoes, but the one of 1903 left an especially deep mark. The F4 storm touched down for only two minutes, but the destruction it caused in that time was astonishing.

It killed 98 people and injured at least 180 more as it swept through a cotton mill and other businesses on the outskirts of town. Sadly, at the time, many cotton mills employed children as laborers, and they accounted for several of the fatalities.

18: Poplar Bluff Tornado

On May 9, 1927, a tornado hit Poplar Bluff, Missouri, killing 98 people and destroying much of the downtown. An additional 350 people walked away with horrific injuries.

The F4 storm only took three minutes to rip through the city, leveling thirty-one square blocks as it went. Many of the resulting casualties were at the Melbourne Hotel, a 20-room building that collapsed during the storm.

19: Oklahoma Territory Tornado

In 1905, a tornado hit the Oklahoma Territory, ravaging the town of Snyder, Oklahoma. The official death count was 97 people, but the National Weather Service admits the actual number of casualties will probably never be known.

According to on-site accounts, the twister hit between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. on May 10th. Though onlookers disagree on the exact time of touchdown, watches found in the wreckage were consistently stopped at 8:45 p.m. And, while the storm may have felt like it lasted an eternity, it likely flattened the town in less than three minutes.

20: The Terrible Tornado

On June 3, 1860, a tornado hit Comanche, Iowa, and Albany, Illinois. It was later coined “The Terrible Tornado” by The New York Times.

The settlers of the small town of Comanche had no idea that the darkening skies of that hot June afternoon were a forewarning of more than cooling rain. After dropping golf-ball-sized hail over the town, a funnel struck down, ultimately destroying much of Comanche and Albany, which was just across the river. All in all, 92 people lost their lives to the Terrible Tornado.

21: Worcester Tornado

Massachusetts only sees three to five tornados per year, and none have been as deadly as the one that struck Worcester on June 9, 1953. The Worcester Tornado caused 90 casualties and a massive amount of damage.

Four thousand buildings were severely damaged or destroyed by the twister, and over 1,200 were injured. Onlookers reported baseball-sized hail, winds over 300 miles per hour, and debris thrown as far as Cape Cod.

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