NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
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June 2023 Tornado Occurrences
Source: SPC
According to data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, during June, there were 224 preliminary tornado reports. This was slightly below the 1991-2010 average of 243 tornadoes for the month of June. The following paragraphs summarize three notable tornado events through the month.
On June 14-19, a tornado outbreak, including two EF-3 tornadoes, occurred across parts of the southern U.S. and Ohio Valley. This multi-day period produced over 70 preliminary tornadoes (i.e., 25 EF-0, 32 EF-1, 12 EF-2 and two EF-3 tornadoes) and widespread damage across portions of Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas and Ohio. On June 18th, an EF-3 tornado in Louin, Mississippi resulted in 25 injuries and one fatality. These tornadoes caused scattered damage to homes, businesses, vehicles, agriculture and other infrastructure. Overall, there were five reported fatalities and several injuries reported.
On June 21, there were one dozen preliminary tornadoes that impacted eastern Colorado and north-central Texas. An EF-3 tornado in Matador, TX resulted in four fatalities. Significant damage occurred on the west side of Matador causing significant damage to homes, businesses and vehicles. For Texas, this was the most tornado fatalities in one month since December 2015. There were at least nine injuries also from these tornadoes.
On June 23-26, over 60 preliminary tornadoes including two EF-3 tornadoes resulted in loss of life and widespread damage across portions of Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky and Arkansas. These tornadoes caused scattered damage to homes, businesses, vehicles, agriculture and other infrastructure. There were four reported fatalities and multiple injuries.
Did You Know?
Tornado Count
Final monthly tornado counts are typically less than the preliminary count. This can be due to some phenomena being inaccurately reported as tornadic activity or a single tornado being reported multiple times. Tornado accounts are reported to the local National Weather Service forecast offices who are responsible for going into the field and verifying each tornado reported. This process often takes several months to complete. Once all reports have been investigated, the final count is published by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC).
The Tornado Monthly Climate Reports are written using the preliminary numbers because the final data is not available at the time of production. Historically, for every 100 preliminary tornado reports, at least 65 tornadoes are confirmed. An error bar is depicted on the tornado count graphic representing this uncertainty in the preliminary tornado count.
The following U.S. studies performed by SPC meteorologists offer deeper context and discussion regarding the frequency and distribution of tornado intensity climatologies:
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Edwards, R., H. E. Brooks, and H. Cohn, 2021: Changes in tornado climatology accompanying the Enhanced
Fujita scale. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 60, 1465-1482
DOI: 10.1175/JAMC-D-21-0058.1. - Mccarthy, Daniel & Schaefer, Joseph. (2004). Tornado trends over the past thirty years. paper presented at 14th Conference on Applied Meteorology.