Storm Report Desk Analysis Controls

Current View

Preparing the storm record…

Hazards

The opening view combines tornado, hail, and damaging-wind reports. Choose a hazard here to narrow the record.

Guided Views 8

Start with a prepared view.

Years 1950–2025

Start Year End Year

Tornadoes run from 1950; hail and wind from 1955. Reports rise steeply over the record because spotting and reporting improved, not only because storms did.

Strength Everything

Minimum Strength

One slider, three scales: an EF rating for tornadoes, a stone size for hail — pea, quarter, golf ball, baseball, grapefruit, softball — and a gust speed in miles per hour for wind.

Only reports that killed someone

Map Story Shape · Colour

What The Map Shows

All severe-weather reports grouped into raised density cells.

Colour By

NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database. Tornadoes 1950–2025, hail and wind 1955–2025.

Severe Storm History

Preparing the storm record…

1950–2025

Play the record year by year.

Mode Speed

Tiles © Esri

Loading The Storm Record

Unpacking a million storm reports…

Filtered Record Report Details

Preparing reports…

	Hazard	State				Where
Preparing reports…

Storm Report Guide

What A Storm Report Is

This tool lives at severe.jbf.com.

Every symbol is something a person saw and reported. A tornado surveyed by the Weather Service, a hailstone measured against a coin, a gust that took down a tree. Hover for a quick preview; click or tap a symbol to pin the full report in the right rail.

Tornadoes73,458

Since 1950, rated 0 to 5 from surveyed damage.

Hail414,481

Since 1955, sized against a coin or a ball: a quarter, a golf ball, a softball.

Wind562,071

Since 1955, measured or estimated gusts, shown in miles per hour.

Reading The Record

More Reports Does Not Mean More Storms

The number of reports climbs steeply across the record. Doppler radar arrived, spotter networks grew, phones put a camera in every pocket, and warning practice changed. A storm in 1958 that nobody saw is simply not in this data.
Hail and wind depend most on somebody being there. Their apparent growth is largely a growth in observers, which is why the empty interior west is thin here and the corridor from Texas to Ohio is dense.
Tornado ratings come from damage. A violent tornado crossing open country can be rated low or left unrated because there was nothing standing in its path to survey.
Reports cluster along roads and near towns, because that is where people are.

One Slider, Three Scales

What "Strength" Means Here

Step	Tornado	Hail	Wind
0	Everything	Everything	Everything
1	EF1 and up	1″ · a quarter	58 mph
2	EF2 and up	1¾″ · a golf ball	75 mph
3	EF3 and up	2¾″ · a baseball	86 mph
4	EF4 and up	4″ · a grapefruit	104 mph
5	EF5 only	4½″ · a softball	127 mph

On the report map: individual tornado funnels become progressively larger and slightly more intense from EF1 through EF5. EF0 and unrated reports stay quieter; broad-scale groups remain sized by report count.

The biggest stone on record: 8 inches across, at Vivian, South Dakota on 23 July 2010 — a volleyball. Two older reports in this archive claim more, 9 inches in Arkansas in 1972 and 9.99 in Indiana in 1961, but neither was verified to modern standards and 9.99 is the largest number that field can hold. They are left in because this is the record as reported, not as edited.

A note on the 3D view: a million points cannot be extruded one at a time — they would be a million slivers. The density view bins the country into cells and raises each one by how many reports fall inside it, which is the shape that actually reads.

About The Data

Reports: Pending
Tornadoes: Pending
Hail: Pending
Wind: Pending

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, by way of the hazard-history archive. Reports without a location are excluded and counted in the build.

Official References Storm Prediction Center: Severe Weather Database National Weather Service: The Enhanced Fujita Scale

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