Mapped: The States With the Most Tornadoes

On average, the United States reports more than 1000 tornadoes every year, a higher total than anywhere else in the world.

That huge number is due at least in part to America’s topography: The central Great Plains and Mississippi River valley provide the perfect low-lying, fast-warming breeding ground for big storms. As masses of cold air move south from Canada, masses of warm, wet air can drift inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and when these two front meet, it’s go time. An ordinary thunderstorm in this vast expanse of the country can develop into a severe event, like a supercell, or worse, a tornado.

As a new analysis by the data- and number-crunching website USA Facts has shown, the U.S. is so prone to twisters that every single state except Hawaii recorded at least one tornado in the five years from 2020–2024. But which state comes out on top in terms of the total number of storms it sees each year? And, for that matter, in which state do these storms cause the most damage?

1. The Most Tornadoes By State and County, 2020–2024
2. The States with the Most Tornado-Related Injuries and Deaths
3. The States With the Most Tornado Damage
4. The Number of Tornadoes in All 50 States, 2020–2024

The Most Tornadoes By State and County, 2020–2024

Given that it’s the largest of the lower 48 states, it might be understandable that Texas recorded more tornadoes inside its borders than anywhere else in the U.S., with a total of 516 storms between 2020–2024 (for an average of just over 100 per year). Similarly high numbers were recorded in second-place Illinois (491) and Iowa (462), while at the opposite end of the scale, Alaska had just a single twister in the analysis’s five-year period.

The county-by-county data show a slightly different picture, however, with Texas not even making the top 15 despite having the highest total overall. Instead, the individual county that records the most tornadoes each year is Washington County, Colorado, with a total of 40 during the survey’s five-year period, making for a yearly average of eight—and a staggering 13 more than second-place Cook County, Illinois. In fact, Illinois’s counties took no less than three of the top 5 spots in the survey overall; after Mobile County, Alabama (with a total of 24) in third, Will County, Illinois, came in fourth (with a reported 23 tornadoes), followed by Kane County (with 22) in fifth.

The States with the Most Tornado-Related Injuries and Deaths

Despite its strong showing at the top of the list, Illinois reported no tornado-related deaths between 2020–24 (in line with the vast majority of U.S. states) and only 10 storm-related injuries. In terms of the human toll of these storms, Texas was again at the top of the list—alongside Florida and Oklahoma—in recording a total of eight deaths due to twisters during the period of the analysis (as well more than 120 storm-related injuries).

The States With the Most Tornado Damage

Florida suffered by far the greatest financial damage from tornadoes, with a staggering $892.8 billion in storm damage reported in 2024 alone—more than half the year’s national total and three times that of the second most storm-damaged state, Oklahoma. In fact, Florida and Oklahoma were the only two U.S. states to report more than $100 billion in tornado-related damage, with Arkansas ($90 billion), Michigan ($54 billion) and Iowa ($46 billion) completing the top five.

The Number of Tornadoes in All 50 States, 2020–2024

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