Template talk:Deadliest tornadoes by state

Listing of states with no deaths

It doesn't make sense. The name of the template is "Deadliest tornadoes or outbreaks by state", so it should omit states which have recorded no deadly tornadoes. I am going to remove them again. Please hold discussion here (since the main contributors besides me appear to not have an account) -RunningOnBrains 00:54, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

All 50 states have been hit by at least one tornado. I have an account but no page. Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Rhode Island and Vermont are the only states that have never been hit by any deadly tornadoes. The first recorded tornado in Alaska occurred on November 4, 1959 in Cordova and was only an F0, like all of only 4 tornadoes to hit the state. The two strongest tornadoes to have hit California were of F3 strength in Blythe on August 16, 1973 and Orange on February 9, 1978. The Strongest in Hawaii were of F2 strength in 1982 (two on February 11 and one on March 18) all in Honolulu. None of the tornadoes in Nevada exceeded the F1 strength and only two of them caused an injury-the first was an unrated tornado on May 26, 1964 in Yerington and the other was an F1 on July 16, 1973 in Reno. The strongest tornado in Rhode Island was an F2 in Cranston on August 7, 1986 and the strongest in Vermont was an F2, which occurred on May 31, 1998 in North Bennington, causing F3 damage in Mechanicville, New York. I agree that Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Rhode Island and Vermont should be removed from the template.--Kevjgav (talk) 22:52, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Also, there are several states where the strongest tornadoes caused no deaths or injuries. In Utah the strongest was an F3 in the Uinta Mountains on August 11, 1993. In Delaware the strongest was an F3 in New Castle on April 28, 1961. In Colorado the strongest was an F4 in Springfield on May 18, 1977. The strongest tornado in Wyoming was an F4 in Moran on July 21, 1987. And finally the strongest in Arizona were all F3, such as in Prescott on August 10, 1972 and none of them caused any deaths or injuries.--Kevjgav (talk) 00:55, 5 October 2014 (UTC) Must I add that the strongest tornado to hit South Dakota was an F5 in Colome on May 8, 1965 causing no deaths and the strongest in Tennessee was an F5 as well, in Lawrence County on April 16, 1998 and again, causing no deaths.--Kevjgav (talk) 01:43, 5 October 2014 (UTC) Tennessee has also been hit by two high-end F4 tornadoes that were initially rated F5-the first was on March 21, 1952 in Moscow and the other was on April 3, 1974 in Tullahoma, which only caused F5 damage in Alabama.--Kevjgav (talk) 01:54, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

I do agree that we could remove the states with no deaths and make a note of them at the bottom, but I don't see how the issue of the highest-rated tornadoes is relevant. TornadoLGS (talk) 04:59, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

@TornadoLGS and RunningOnBrains-The issue of the highest-rated tornadoes is completely irrelevant so there should be no mentioning about that, but I don't see why we can't remove the states with no deaths and make a note of them at the bottom because it doesn't make sense to include these states.--Kevjgav--Kevjgav (talk) 22:22, 17 May 2015 (UTC)

Another issue

Why is it tornadoes or outbreaks? Shouldn't it be either/or? This really isn't an encyclopedic format for a template.-RunningOnBrains 22:36, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

I'd agree there are a couple issues here.

• How do you know if the state you're looking at was one tornado or an outbreak?
• Was does "Worst" mean? Deadliest? Costliest? Highest on the Fujita Scale? Most number of tornado touchdowns? Something else? Worst is way too vague of a description.

IMO, the template should be reverted back to this revision. As it stands right now, a person who read this teamplate for the first time would walk away with very little concrete information. WxGopher (talk) 19:31, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

1912 Syracuse tornado death toll surpassed by 2014 Smithfield tornado

I just edited this after finding out that the Smithfield tornado killed four people surpassing the death toll of the Syracuse tornado by one fatality.--Kevjgav (talk) 21:45, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Also on November 16, 1989, nine children were killed at an elementary school in Newburgh when a cafeteria wall was blown over by what the National Weather Service classified as an F1 tornado. Ted Fujita, however, concluded that this was not a tornado, but a microburst.

Proposed removal of states with no deaths

It doesn't make sense to include the states with no deaths if the template is "deadliest tornadoes by state" so I think that we should remove the states with no deaths and make a note of them at the bottom. But first I would like a show of hands so I know who supports and who opposes my idea and for each user to explain.--Kevjgav (talk) 11:58, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

I would support removing them so long as we leave a note mentioning that these states do not have any known tornadic fatalities. That said, our discussions of things such as this do not involve voting. The template talk pages don't seem to get much traffic so I don't think many people are even aware of this discussion. I say just be bold and do it. TornadoLGS (talk) 18:56, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

Clovis, New Mexico and Wright, Wyoming tornadoes

These tornadoes caused 2 deaths in their states so I edited that accordingly, making a note that they were the most recent tornadoes in those states with this number of deaths. I removed the May 31, 1930 Wagon Mound, New Mexico tornado and replaced in with the March 23, 2007 Clovis, New Mexico. I also removed the June 25, 1942 Wheatland, Wyoming tornado and replaced it with the August 12, 2005 Wright, Wyoming tornado. The tornado that hit Reserve, Montana on July 26, 2010 was one of two to cause two deaths in the state; the other occurred on June 10, 1923 in Rivulet. The deadliest tornadoes in Oregon killed three in Lexington on June 14, 1888 and Long Creek on June 3, 1894. The deadliest in Maine killed one person on July 8, 1890 in Winthrop and August 11, 1954 in Caribou. I realize that this info is irrelevant compared to the first two statements.--Kevjgav (talk) 23:57, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

Also, I need some help getting the number of deaths from the Colvis tornado aligned with the other death tolls.--Kevjgav (talk) 00:01, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

And the 1999 Salt Lake City tornado wasn't the first deadly tornado in Utah. On July 6, 1884 a young girl was killed in Wanship. I just made a note that the 1999 Salt Lake City tornado was the most recent tornado to cause a death. This information is available in the external link found in the 1999 Salt Lake City tornado article.--Kevjgav (talk) 22:29, 15 September 2015 (UTC)

The link does not seem to be working. I would be interested to find more information about this event, as Grazulis does not seem to mention it. TornadoLGS (talk) 22:33, 15 September 2015 (UTC)

1896 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado

The 1896 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado killed more people than the Joplin tornado, so the Missouri tornado needs to be updated as currently, Wikipedia disagrees with the Tornado project’s counts. Elijahandskip (talk) 18:52, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

@TornadoLGS:, United States Man, ChessEric.

@Elijahandskip: The 1896 St. Louis tornado killed more people overall, but "only" 137 of those deaths were in Missouri; the rest were in Illinois. In terms of the number of Missouri deaths, the Joplin tornado still comes out on top. The Tri-State tornado also caused fatalities in Missouri, but we don't count it as Missouri's deadliest tornado for similar reasons. TornadoLGS (talk) 19:12, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

Also, apparently pinging doesn't work if the comment isn't signed. TornadoLGS (talk) 19:23, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

Ah ok. Also, good to note for the pings. Elijahandskip (talk) 19:41, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

In unrelated news, I didn't get a ping for this discussion. Weird. Anyway, what TornadoLGS said. ChessEric (talk · contribs) 21:32, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

@Elijahandskip: Agree with TornadoLGS and ChessEric. Also example is the listing for Oklahoma (from 1947); it's also just listing the death toll in the state from the storm (113), instead of the official total death toll (181), as the rest happened in Texas.--Halls4521 (talk) 22:28, 3 May 2022 (UTC)