TORNADO FACTS

A tornado is a narrow, violently rotating column of air that extends from the base of a thunderstorm to the ground. Because wind is invisible, it is hard to see a tornado unless it forms a condensation funnel made up of water droplets, dust and debris. Tornadoes are the most violent of all atmospheric storms.
Twister, funnel, and cyclone are other names for a tornado
Giant, persistent thunderstorms called supercells spawn the most destructive tornadoes
The average twister is about 660 feet wide and moves about 30 miles an hour. Most don't travel more than six miles before dying out. Massive tornadoes, however, can roar along as fast as 300 miles an hour and be over two miles wide (the 2013 El Reno tornado was the largest ever recorded at 2.6 miles).
The United States has more tornadoes than anywhere else by far. About 1,200 tornadoes hit the U.S. yearly. However, tornadoes occur on every continent with the exception of Antartica. Two of the highest concentrations of tornadoes outside the U.S. are in Argentina and Bangladesh.

The peak tornado season for the southern plains is during May into early June. In the northern plains and upper Midwest, tornado season is in June or July. The Gulf states start their season in the earliest months of spring. However, tornadoes can (and do) form every month of the year.
Every year in the United States, tornadoes do about 400 million dollars in damage and kill about 70 people on average
Since Doppler radar has been in use, the warning time for tornadoes has grown from fewer than five minutes in the 1980s to an average of 13 minutes today
Tornadoes can happen at any time of day or night, but most tornadoes occur between 4–9 p.m
Tornadoes that occur at night are 2.5 times deadlier than ones that occur during the day

70%

of tornado deaths are caused by just 2% of the most violent tornado-producing storms

50%

of all structure-related fatalities occur in mobile homes

30%

of mobile home residents are able to evacuate to safe shelter

Tornadoes are classified as weak, strong, or violent storms. Violent tornadoes comprise only about two percent of all tornadoes, but they cause 70 percent of all tornado deaths and may last an hour or more.
Greater than 70 percent of all tornado fatalities are associated with housing structures. Despite mobile homes only comprising about six percent of the total US housing stock, half of these tornado fatalities occur within mobile and manufactured homes.
Despite their expressed willingness to flee, less than 30 percent of mobile and manufactured home residents are able to do so in practice. This is partially because of a lack of public shelters in and around mobile home parks.