List of Tornadoes Causing 100 or More Deaths - Uncertainty

Uncertainty

There are many sources of uncertainty in the statistics mentioned on this page. Before the 20th century, and even until recently in third-world countries such as Bangladesh, records-keeping was spotty at best. Before the American Civil War, slave deaths were often not included in tornado death tolls. Many tornadoes from 100 or more years ago had no official government report on damage or casualties, so statistics must be compiled from local newspapers, which are not always a reliable or consistent source. Many death tolls were published with people still missing, or with people critically injured and likely to die later. In Bangladesh and India, exact populations of towns were often not known, so most death figures are approximate. Individual tornado descriptions go into more detail on these uncertainties.

There is also meteorological uncertainty with the nature of many tornadoes on this list. Before the 1970s, and even now outside of North America, most tornado paths were not thoroughly surveyed to ensure that the storm was indeed a single tornado and not a series of tornadoes from the same storm (a tornado family). Often a single supercell can produce a new tornado soon after or even before the demise of an old tornado, giving the appearance to many observers that a single tornado has caused all the damage. On this list, if it is likely that the tornado was in fact two or more tornadoes, it will appear in italics.