NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
Visit:NCEI U.S. Tornadoes
According to preliminary data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, there were 91 tornadoes reported during August. This was above the 1991-2020 average of 81.0 tornadoes for the month. Eighteen of the 30 days in August had at least one reported tornado. There were two days with at least 10 tornadoes — August 5 and 8. Many tornadoes were spawn from the slow northward movement of Hurricane Debby, which first made landfall in Florida, followed by a second landfall as a tropical storm in coastal South Carolina. The 2024 year-to-date U.S. preliminary tornado count is 1,597, which is among the highest tornado counts on record for the same January-August period. Only 2011 and 2008 have a similar high count of tornadoes. The following summary details the days with high tornado counts during August.
The most prolific tornado day of the month was August 5, as 29 tornadoes impacted southern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, coastal South Carolina and also an EF-1 tornado that struck the city of Buffalo, New York. The tornadoes that impacted coastal South Carolina were spun off as Tropical Storm Debby made its second landfall. These tornadoes leveled homes and damaged vehicles and businesses including a school. There were no reported injuries or fatalities.
The remnants of Debby continued to move slowly inland and up the east coast producing more tornadoes, damage and loss of life across North Carolina. On August 7th, an EF-2 caused significant damage in Sampson County. Multiple homes had roofing and siding ripped off, windows destroyed, and hardwood trees up to 2 feet in diameter snapped. Another EF-2 caused significant damage in the community of Snow Hill in Greene County in the early morning hours of the 8th. An EF-3 also touched down in Wilson County, causing major damage in the town of Lucama. This was only the third EF-3 tornado associated with a tropical cyclone in North Carolina since 1950. There were no reported injuries and one fatality.
Tropical Depression Debby continued to offer favorable conditions for tornado development on August 8, as 11 tornadoes formed across Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The tornadoes damaged homes, vehicles, businesses and other infrastructure, but did not cause any reported injuries or fatalities.
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.