NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
Visit:NCEI U.S. Tornadoes
July 2023 Tornado Occurrences
Source: SPC
According to data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, during July, there were 114 preliminary tornado reports. This was slightly below the 1991-2010 average of 134 tornadoes for the month of July. The following paragraphs summarize three notable tornado events through the month.
On July 2, 11 preliminary tornadoes that occurred across central Kentucky and central and northeast Pennsylvania. These were all weaker EF-0 and EF-1 tornadoes that caused scattered damage to homes, businesses, vehicles and vegetation. Siding, roofs and porches were ripped from numerous buildings. There were no reported injuries or fatalities.
On July 11-13, there were 35 preliminary tornadoes that impacted eastern Nebraska, western Iowa and northeastern Illinois. There were also isolated tornadoes in Colorado, Arkansas and Wisconsin. These tornadoes were mostly of weaker intensity (i.e., fifteen EF-0s, nine EF-1s, one EF-2). There were also several EF-U (unknown intensity) tornadoes, which are those that cannot be rated due to a lack of damage evidence. The EF-2 tornado caused damage in Harrison County, Iowa as homes, vehicles, crops, farms and equipment were impacted. Of note, one of the EF-0 tornadoes shut down Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, as a tornado formed on the airport's property near I-90. A number of structures had minor roof and siding damage in this area before the tornado moved into Rosemont, Illinois where it caused minor damage around Allstate Arena. There was one reported injury but no fatalities from these tornadoes.
The strongest tornado identified during July was rated EF-3 and tracked 16 miles across Nash and Edgecombe counties in eastern North Carolina on the 19th. This tornado destroyed several manufactured homes in the community of Dortches. Other homes sustained major structural damage, including the collapse of exterior walls. Of note, the tornado produced significant damage to a large Pfizer manufacturing plant, which supplies about 25 percent of all sterile injectable medications used by hospitals nationwide, with at least 50,000 pallets of medication damaged and deemed unusable. This was the first EF-3 tornado recorded in North Carolina in the month of July and only the third tornado of EF-3 and greater strength recorded in the state during meteorological summer (since 1950). There were at least 16 injuries and no fatalities from this destructive tornado.
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.