Tornado in Rhode Island
Every tornado event the National Weather Service has filed in Rhode Island, year by year, with the most significant episodes. A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
The most significant on the map
The most significant tornado episodes in Rhode Island.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The record
- Events
- 20
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 24
- Damage
- $5.0 million
Every year
The most significant
Ranked by deaths, injuries, damage and size together.
- Tornadoes in Rhode Island, August 7, 1986
- Tornado and Flash Flooding in Rhode Island, August 18, 2023A high amplitude, negatively tilted trough moving across the Great Lakes and into New England along with cold and warm front provided strong forcing which resulted in flooding, wind damage, and 5 tornadoes.
- Tornado in Rhode Island, October 23, 2018Low pressure over upstate New York moved east-southeastward across northern Rhode Island and southeast Massachusetts during the afternoon and early evening.
- Tornado and Damaging Winds in Rhode Island, October 18, 1990
- Tornado and Damaging Wind in Rhode Island, August 8, 1986
- Tornado and Damaging Wind in Rhode Island, September 23, 1989
- Tornado and Flash Flooding in Rhode Island, July 23, 2008A frontal system moved through southern New England with the warm front moving through first and increasing low level moisture. Then the cold front moved through providing a lifting mechanism for showers and thunderstorms to develop.
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Rhode Island, November 13, 2021A fast-moving cold front combined with a potent short-wave trough lifting northeastward across western and northern New England to produce severe thunderstorms across southern New England.
- Tornado and Damaging Winds in Rhode Island, June 26, 2024Strong storms moved through southern New England overnight bringing a line of very strong winds and a tornado to Rhode Island.
- Tornado and Flash Flooding in Rhode Island, August 10, 2012A series of upper level disturbances rotated around a vertically stacked low pressure system in the Great Lakes. These provided a focus for showers and thunderstorms to develop across southern New England.
- Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Rhode Island, September 13, 2023A frontal system brought a period of heavy rain, flash flooding, and embedded thunderstorms to southern New England from the morning to mid evening.
- Tornado in Rhode Island, August 26, 1985
- Tornado and Damaging Wind in Rhode Island, August 13, 1994A small tornado touched down along a line near Hope Furnace Road to Clarke Road to Oak Street to Howard Avenue. Residents reported seeing the funnel. Many trees were uprooted and three poles snapped off.
- Tornado and Hail in Rhode Island, August 16, 2000A weak tornado briefly touched down in a high elevation portion of North Foster. The location was on East Killingly Road, about 2 miles east of the Connecticut state line, at an elevation of 670 feet.
- Tornado in Rhode Island, September 14, 1972
- Tornado in Rhode Island, October 2, 2019A cold front pushed southward through the region into warm, moist air mass, which formed an isolated weak tornado in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The tornado formed at the collision of two boundaries, one which came in from the north and the other which came in from the east.
More
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24.