Tracking destructive and deadly tornadoes in the US, in maps and charts

(CNN) — More than 1,000 tornadoes roar across the United States in an average year, causing billions of dollars in damage and killing scores of Americans.

The storms occur across the country throughout the year, but are most common during the spring and summer months in the Deep South and parts of the Great Plains and Midwest.

Track their frequency and recent locations on this page, which updates daily.

The National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center logs severe weather reports as they happen, including those about tornadoes. This map plots the number and locations of preliminary tornado reports during the last seven days:

March is the on ramp to the typical spring tornado season, with April, May and June its peak months. May is usually the most active with 268 twisters annually, based on the 1991-2020 average.

Some parts of the country have seen more tornado reports than others, with clusters appearing in the Midwest, Plains and South, which are regions of the country prone to storms, according to a CNN analysis that counts them within a 25-mile hexagonal grid across the contiguous United States.

In addition to property damage caused each year by destructive winds, storms also are responsible for many deaths annually, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal agency that tracks severe weather events.

Since 1991, nearly 70 people have been killed by them each year on average. That figure is inflated somewhat by 2011, when 553 people were killed. More than 300 of those were killed in a late-April outbreak that was one of the deadliest and costliest outbreaks ever recorded. A Joplin, Missouri, twister killed more 150 people less than a month later, making it the 7th deadliest US tornado on record.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.