Storm Catalog
The deadliest storms in American history — ranked by loss of life and lasting impact. Each entry includes the hard numbers, a handful of surprising facts, and a deeper look at what happened and why it still matters.
🌪️ Ten Most Destructive U.S. Tornadoes
Ranked by loss of life — the single tornado events that reshaped American communities.
Tri-State Tornado
The deadliest tornado in U.S. history carved a continuous path across three states in under four hours.
Great Natchez Tornado
A massive antebellum tornado killed hundreds along the Mississippi River, including many on boats who had no shelter to run to.
St. Louis – East St. Louis Tornado
A violent tornado ripped through the heart of a major industrial city, crossing the Mississippi River and destroying East St. Louis.
Tupelo Tornado
One of the South's worst tornadoes devastated Tupelo the night before the equally deadly Gainesville tornado in Georgia.
Gainesville Tornado
Just 24 hours after Tupelo, a double tornado strike crushed downtown Gainesville — including a factory full of workers.
Woodward Tornado
A classic Plains supercell outbreak produced an F5 that erased much of Woodward, Oklahoma, after dark.
Joplin Tornado
The deadliest single U.S. tornado since 1947 and a turning point for how Americans receive wireless emergency alerts.
Amite – Purvis Tornado
A long-track Dixie Alley tornado killed across rural Louisiana and Mississippi before most Americans had ever heard the word 'tornado.'
New Richmond Tornado
A Wisconsin resort town was packed with out-of-town visitors when an F5 tornado demolished the business district.
Flint – Beecher Tornado
An F5 tore through a postwar Michigan suburb, bookending a brutal June 1953 tornado sequence that shocked the Northeast days later.
🌀 Top 10 Hurricanes in U.S. History
The Atlantic monsters that defined American disaster — surge, wind, and flooding at national scale.
Galveston Hurricane of 1900
The deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history erased a prosperous island city with a storm surge that needs no exaggeration to horrify.
Okeechobee Hurricane
After striking Puerto Rico, the storm drowned thousands around Lake Okeechobee when lake waters topped fragile dikes.
Hurricane Katrina
A Gulf hurricane became America's modern mega-disaster when levees failed and New Orleans flooded.
Chenière Caminada Hurricane
A late-season Louisiana hurricane nearly wiped out fishing villages on Chenière Caminada with surge and wind.
Sea Islands Hurricane
A late-August hurricane drowned Gullah Geechee communities across the Sea Islands with a massive surge.
Georgia Hurricane of 1881
A 19th-century hurricane killed hundreds along the Georgia coast with surge, wind, and inland flooding.
Hurricane Audrey
An early-season Category 4 caught southwest Louisiana sleeping and produced one of the worst storm surge disasters of the 1950s.
Great Miami Hurricane
The boom-time hurricane that should have ended Florida land speculation — but didn't for long.
Hurricane Sandy
A gargantuan Atlantic storm flooded New York City subways and redefined Northeast hurricane risk.
Hurricane Harvey
Harvey stalled over Texas and became the ultimate 21st-century rainfall disaster — Houston underwater by inches per hour.