FEMA disaster type · OpenFEMA declarations
Tornado disasters in the United States
FEMA disaster declarations classified as "Tornado" from 1953 to 2024 - which states are hit most often and how the count has changed over time.
- 182
- FEMA declarations
- 33
- States affected
- 1953
- Earliest year
- 2024
- Latest year
The verdict
According to FEMA's disaster declaration history, tornado ranks #5 of the 27 distinct disaster types the agency has declared, accounting for 3.5% of all 5,218 declarations on record. It is declared more often than 85% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, based on total historical volume.
- #5 of 27
- FEMA disaster types, by declaration volume
- 3.5%
- share of all 5,218 FEMA declarations
- 182
- tornado declarations, 1953–2024
Ranking reflects the count of Presidentially declared federal disasters per OpenFEMA, not event severity or economic loss; a rare declaration type can still be individually catastrophic.
How does Tornado compare?
Tornado vs. every FEMA declaration type
Declaration volume across all tracked incident types
182 Top 19% higher than 81% of 27 disaster types
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more disaster types. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-03
What shapes the tornado record?
States with the most tornado declarations
Wider bars = more FEMA declarations of this type
- Arkansas
Arkansas
18 declarations
- Texas
Texas
15 declarations
- Georgia
Georgia
13 declarations
- Oklahoma
Oklahoma
13 declarations
- Mississippi
Mississippi
12 declarations
- Illinois
Illinois
11 declarations
- Ohio
Ohio
8 declarations
- Tennessee
Tennessee
8 declarations
- Alabama 7
Alabama
7 declarations
- Kentucky 7
Kentucky
7 declarations
What this shows Arkansas leads with 18 tornado declarations among the states shown.
Tornado declarations by year
Federal declaration cadence for this incident type across the OpenFEMA record.
Peak year in this series: 1974 (10 declarations). A declaration is a federal assistance trigger, not a raw event count.
How common are Tornado disasters in the U.S.?
Geographic concentration is pronounced for this disaster type. The three states with the most tornado declarations on record are AR (18 declarations), TX (15 declarations), GA (13 declarations), driven mainly by which states sit in the relevant hazard corridor. States with the fewest declarations, including SC (1), SD (1), UT (1), generally facing less exposure to this hazard type, though physiographic coverage still varies.
FEMA has issued 182 federal disaster declarations classified as tornado between 1953 and 2024, affecting 33 states and territories. Each declaration represents a formal federal recognition that an event exceeded state and local response capacity, unlocking Public Assistance, Individual Assistance, or Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding depending on the declaration class (DR, EM, or FM). Raw declaration counts therefore measure the federal response footprint, which is a lagging and thresholded indicator: smaller events handled entirely at the state level never appear, and declaration thresholds have been recalibrated over the dataset's multi-decade history.
Temporal patterns in the record tell a separate story. The peak year on record was 1974, with 10 tornado declarations issued that single year, a clustering driven by major multi-state events and the federal government's declaration cadence. The most recent year on record is 2024, with 4 declarations. Trends over the 71+ year history reflect changing federal declaration policy alongside real shifts in event frequency.
Which federal declaration does tornado actually get?
This is a conventional Major Disaster type: 90% of its 182 declarations are DRs, with 10% filed as Emergencies. A DR is the instrument that opens the widest set of programs -- Public Assistance for damaged infrastructure, Individual Assistance for households, and Hazard Mitigation funding intended to reduce the next event's cost. The concentration means these events are typically declared after damage has been assessed, not while they are still developing.
Declarations by State
| # | State | Declarations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arkansas AR | 18 |
| 2 | Texas TX | 15 |
| 3 | Georgia GA | 13 |
| 4 | Oklahoma OK | 13 |
| 5 | Mississippi MS | 12 |
| 6 | Illinois IL | 11 |
| 7 | Ohio OH | 8 |
| 8 | Tennessee TN | 8 |
| 9 | Alabama AL | 7 |
| 10 | Kentucky KY | 7 |
| 11 | Kansas KS | 6 |
| 12 | Michigan MI | 6 |
| 13 | Nebraska NE | 6 |
| 14 | Wisconsin WI | 6 |
| 15 | Iowa IA | 5 |
| 16 | Louisiana LA | 5 |
| 17 | Missouri MO | 5 |
| 18 | Indiana IN | 4 |
| 19 | North Carolina NC | 4 |
| 20 | Connecticut CT | 3 |
| 21 | Minnesota MN | 3 |
| 22 | North Dakota ND | 3 |
| 23 | Massachusetts MA | 2 |
| 24 | Pennsylvania PA | 2 |
| 25 | Wyoming WY | 2 |
| 26 | Colorado CO | 1 |
| 27 | Florida FL | 1 |
| 28 | Maryland MD | 1 |
| 29 | Montana MT | 1 |
| 30 | New York NY | 1 |
| 31 | South Carolina SC | 1 |
| 32 | South Dakota SD | 1 |
| 33 | Utah UT | 1 |
Declarations by Year
| Year | Declarations |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 |
| 2023 | 1 |
| 2022 | 6 |
| 2021 | 1 |
| 2020 | 3 |
| 2019 | 2 |
| 2018 | 1 |
| 2017 | 4 |
| 2016 | 1 |
| 2015 | 1 |
| 2014 | 2 |
| 2013 | 1 |
| 2011 | 2 |
| 2010 | 1 |
| 2009 | 1 |
| 2006 | 1 |
| 2005 | 1 |
| 2003 | 1 |
| 2002 | 3 |
| 2001 | 1 |
| 2000 | 2 |
| 1999 | 5 |
| 1998 | 3 |
| 1997 | 1 |
| 1995 | 3 |
| 1994 | 2 |
| 1993 | 7 |
| 1992 | 4 |
| 1991 | 2 |
| 1990 | 2 |
| 1989 | 6 |
| 1988 | 4 |
| 1987 | 1 |
| 1986 | 3 |
| 1985 | 2 |
| 1984 | 10 |
| 1982 | 4 |
| 1980 | 6 |
| 1979 | 8 |
| 1978 | 5 |
| 1977 | 1 |
| 1976 | 3 |
| 1975 | 10 |
| 1974 | 10 |
| 1973 | 3 |
| 1971 | 3 |
| 1970 | 1 |
| 1969 | 2 |
| 1968 | 6 |
| 1967 | 2 |
| 1966 | 1 |
| 1965 | 7 |
| 1960 | 1 |
| 1958 | 1 |
| 1957 | 3 |
| 1956 | 2 |
| 1955 | 1 |
| 1954 | 2 |
| 1953 | 5 |
Recent Tornado Declarations
Download all 182 declarations as CSV . Source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0. The table below lists the 30 most recent; the file carries every one.
| DR# | Title | State | Type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4779 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | IA | DR | 2024-05-14 |
| 4778 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | NE | DR | 2024-05-03 |
| 4777 | TORNADOES | OH | DR | 2024-05-02 |
| 4776 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | OK | DR | 2024-04-30 |
| 4706 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | OK | DR | 2023-04-24 |
| 4637 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | TN | DR | 2022-01-14 |
| 4633 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | AR | DR | 2021-12-23 |
| 3577 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | IL | EM | 2021-12-13 |
| 3576 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | TN | EM | 2021-12-13 |
| 4630 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | KY | DR | 2021-12-12 |
| 3575 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | KY | EM | 2021-12-11 |
| 4601 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | TN | DR | 2021-05-08 |
| 4556 | SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | AR | DR | 2020-07-10 |
| 4544 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | AR | DR | 2020-05-08 |
| 4476 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | TN | DR | 2020-03-05 |
| 4447 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDE | OH | DR | 2019-06-18 |
| 4419 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | AL | DR | 2019-03-05 |
| 4385 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | CT | DR | 2018-08-20 |
| 4324 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | OK | DR | 2017-07-25 |
| 4300 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | LA | DR | 2017-02-11 |
| 4297 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | GA | DR | 2017-01-26 |
| 4295 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | MS | DR | 2017-01-25 |
| 4275 | TORNADO | MT | DR | 2016-08-03 |
| 4205 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | MS | DR | 2015-01-07 |
| 4179 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | NE | DR | 2014-06-17 |
| 4157 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | IL | DR | 2013-11-26 |
| 4117 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | OK | DR | 2013-05-20 |
| 1994 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | MA | DR | 2011-06-15 |
| 1943 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | NY | DR | 2010-10-14 |
| 1921 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | MN | DR | 2010-07-02 |
What this means for Tornado declarations
Tornado is declared more often than 85% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, with 182 FEMA declaration records; Arkansas leads with 18.
- Arkansas accounts for the largest share of tornado declarations in this corpus. Arkansas profile
- See how states compare on raw FEMA declaration volume across all incident types. Most disasters ranking
- Learn what a FEMA declaration does and does not measure relative to NOAA storm events. Disaster-data guide
A federal declaration is a legal assistance trigger, not a count of every storm event or a forecast. For current threats follow the National Weather Service and local officials; in an emergency call 911.
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Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 For informational purposes only
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Verify declarations with FEMA → Verify storm-event context with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.