PlainHazard

National comparison · NOAA Storm Events Database

Tornado risk by state

Texas has recorded the most tornado events of any state, with 1,502 events across the NOAA Storm Events Database's recorded history. This ranking covers all 53 states and territories with at least one recorded tornado event.

Texas
Most tornado events
1,502
Texas tornado events
16,489
Total events nationwide

Texas has recorded the most tornado events of any state (1,502, 9% of the nationwide 16,489)

According to NOAA's Storm Events Database, PlainHazard ranks 53 states and territories by recorded tornado event count. Texas leads the catalog; the top three states together hold 22% of all recorded events. This is a raw event count, not adjusted for land area or population.

  • 1,502 Texas tornado events
  • 9% of U.S. tornado events
  • 22% held by the top 3 states

How concentrated are the events

Texas accounts for 9% of all NOAA-recorded tornado events among the 53 states and territories in this ranking, and the top three states combined, Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, account for 22%. This is a raw event count, not adjusted for state land area.

9%
of nationwide tornado events are in Texas alone
22%
of events concentrated in just the top 3 states
53
states and territories covered in this ranking

A raw event count is not a per-square-mile risk measure; see the per-state detail pages for context.

What this ranking measures

NOAA's Storm Events Database records individual tornado events by state and year. This page sums the recorded event count for each state and ranks the highest totals first. It is a count of past recorded events, not a forecast and not a normalized per-capita or per-area risk measure — a large state can rank higher simply from more land area and more NOAA-monitored events, independent of any single location's actual exposure.

Top 12 states by tornado events

Each row links to the state profile, crawlable ranking, not an image-only chart

  1. 1
    Texas 1.5K tornado events
  2. 2
    Mississippi 1.1K tornado events
  3. 3
    Oklahoma 1.1K tornado events
  4. 4
    Illinois 958 tornado events
  5. 5
    Alabama 896 tornado events
  6. 6
    Iowa 831 tornado events
  7. 7
    Kansas 734 tornado events
  8. 8
    Louisiana 712 tornado events
  9. 9
    Missouri 647 tornado events
  10. 10
    Georgia 637 tornado events
  11. 11
    Minnesota 591 tornado events
  12. 12
    Florida 588 tornado events

Source NOAA Storm Events Database · 2026-08-03

The bar to make this top-12 list

Distribution of tornado event counts across ranked states

588 Top 23% higher than 77% of 53 states

#12 cutoff 0 1.6K all states in this ranking, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. 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 NOAA Storm Events Database · 2026-08-03

Full tornado-risk-by-state ranking

States with the most recorded tornado events rank first. The last column shows recorded tornado fatalities.

# State Tornado Events
1 Texas TX 1,502
2 Mississippi MS 1,097
3 Oklahoma OK 1,077
4 Illinois IL 958
5 Alabama AL 896
6 Iowa IA 831
7 Kansas KS 734
8 Louisiana LA 712
9 Missouri MO 647
10 Georgia GA 637
11 Minnesota MN 591
12 Florida FL 588
13 Nebraska NE 513
14 Colorado CO 471
15 Arkansas AR 466
16 Ohio OH 429
17 Tennessee TN 421
18 Kentucky KY 414
19 Indiana IN 405
20 Wisconsin WI 351
21 North Carolina NC 339
22 South Carolina SC 320
23 North Dakota ND 298
24 Pennsylvania PA 265
25 South Dakota SD 228
26 Virginia VA 182
27 Michigan MI 163
28 New Mexico NM 122
29 New York NY 114
30 Wyoming WY 110
31 Maryland MD 82
32 California CA 73
33 Arizona AZ 63
34 New Jersey NJ 55
35 West Virginia WV 45
36 Montana MT 41
37 Massachusetts MA 39
38 Connecticut CT 31
39 Oregon OR 29
40 Washington WA 24
41 Idaho ID 21
42 Utah UT 21
43 Delaware DE 18
44 New Hampshire NH 14
45 Maine ME 11
46 Nevada NV 11
47 Puerto Rico PR 9
48 Rhode Island RI 9
49 Vermont VT 5
50 District of Columbia DC 4
51 Alaska AK 1
52 Hawaii HI 1
53 U.S. Virgin Islands VI 1

What to do with this ranking

Texas accounts for 9% of NOAA-recorded tornado events (1,502); the top three states hold 22% of the 16,489 catalog total.

Tornado event counts are raw NOAA reports, not land-area or population-adjusted risk, and not a forecast. For current threats follow the National Weather Service and local officials; in an emergency call 911.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database Tornado event records Recorded events depend on NOAA's monitoring and reporting coverage, which has expanded over time. Earlier decades may undercount events relative to more recent years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which US state has the most tornado events?
Texas has the most NOAA-recorded tornado events of any state, 1,502 on record -- 9% of the 16,489 total tornado events across all states tracked.
Are tornadoes concentrated in a few states?
Yes. The top three states, Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, together account for 22% of all recorded tornado events, reflecting the well-documented US "Tornado Alley" pattern of central-plains states seeing disproportionately frequent tornado activity.

Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. This ranking sums NOAA Storm Events Database tornado records by state. It labels the aggregation rather than presenting it as a forecast or a per-capita risk measure. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.