Only 1 Texas County is in the Top 10 For Most Tornadoes

Tornadoes are a weather phenonium we are very much accustomed to in East Texas. In our part of Texas, we've seen some large and very destructive tornadoes over the last several years. Canton, Texas saw a powerful EF-4 tornado in 2017 and Van was tragically impacted by an EF-3 tornado that killed two people in 2015. Surprisingly enough, Texas is not home to the most tornadoes in the country. In fact, only one Texas county ranks in the top 10.

Tornado Segments

weather.com compiled some statistics around the most tornadoes in the country. In those stats, they came up with what they call segments or the number of counties a tornado will travel through. These statistics used a 67 year time span, 1950-2016, to determine these numbers.

Colorado

As surprising as it sounds, a Colorado county came in at number one, Weld County. The reason is because of the mountainous area the county sits in. The air moving north to south creates a lot of spin in a storm that can regularly form a tornado.

Harris County

Coming in at number two on the list is Harris County, Texas. This is due to thunderstorms that form in the gulf that can regularly produce a tornado with that tornado sometimes making landfall.

Based on the data collected, you can see the top 10 counties with the most tornado segments below:

1. Weld County, Colorado - 262 tornado segments
2. Harris County, Texas - 225 tornado segments
3. Adams County, Colorado - 173 tornado segments
4. Palm Beach County, Florida - 168 tornado segments
5. Polk County, Florida - 156 tornado segments
6. Caddo County, Oklahoma - 142 tornado segments
7. Hillsborough County, Florida - 141 tornado segments
8. Oklahoma County, Oklahoma - 140 tornado segments
9. Miami-Dade County, Florida - 134 tornado segments
10. Pinellas County, Florida - 130 tornado segments

It is surprising to see the amount of Florida counties in the top 10 of this list but also makes sense with the state being a peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. There's lots of moisture and warmth to allow thunderstorms and tornadoes to form.

There's several ways that the tornado statistics were broken down. While we've had our fair share of tornadoes in East Texas, none of our counties showed up in any top 10 list, thank goodness. Check out the full breakdown at weather.com.

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