The 10 Deadliest and Most Destructive Tornadoes to Hit Texas

(Canton, Texas) - In East Texas, tornadoes in the spring is like heat in the summer. We are going to have a few touch down during the severe storms that move through our area. Those tornadoes can be small and only uproot some trees and knock some shingles off or they can be large and destroy entire neighborhoods.

No matter the size, tornadoes are a dangerous natural phenomenon. We've all witnessed the destructive nature of a tornado in East Texas. Today, I'm taking a look back at the 10 deadliest and most destructive tornadoes that have hit our state.

Deadliest and Most Destructive Tornadoes to Hit Texas

Tornadoes are a very powerful rotating mixture of warm and cold air (britannica.com). Most tornadoes form from inside a supercell. These supercells are far more powerful than a typical thunderstorm. Inside a supercell is a spinning column of air called a vortex.

That vortex sucks up the moist, warm air around it and expels cold, dry air toward the ground. This will cause the vortex to go from a horizontal spin to a vertical spin creating a funnel cloud that could eventually touch the ground. This is a rather simple explanation but I think you get the drift.

Powerful Tornadoes in East Texas

In East Texas, we've seen our fair share of tornadoes. Over the last 10 years, we've seen two very powerful tornadoes, one in Van in 2015 and in Canton in 2017.

The tornado in Van in 2015 was classified as an EF-3 and killed two people (tylerpaper.com). The two killed were the grandparents of one my classmates from Lindale High School.

The Canton tornado in 2017 was classified as an EF-4 with winds topping 185 miles per hour (FOX 4).

Deadly Tornadoes in Texas

While those two storms were devastating to each East Texas town, both Canton and Van were lucky to not see any more casualties than what was reported. For the 10 tornadoes we'll look at below, that was not case.

The storms below produced large and very destructive funnels that destroyed homes and businesses and killed hundreds. All the information comes from weather.gov with links to various articles and YouTube videos going into more detail about the storm that moved through that area at that time.

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