Tornadoes of 1860

Grazulis's record has 20 significant tornadoes in the United States in 1860, which killed 164 people and injured 468. 1 was rated F4 or above. Before 1950 the record is Thomas P. Grazulis’s list of significant tornadoes: those rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody.

1859 1863

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. Grazulis rated these tornadoes on the Fujita scale decades after the fact, from written accounts of the damage. The scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2113 to 157 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
F3158 to 206 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5261 to 318 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
Grazulis gave no rating: the surviving account records a tornado without enough about the damage to rate it. Almost all of these are before 1880.

The violent tornadoes of 1860

F4 Camanche tornado, Iowa and IllinoisJune 3, 186092 killed

The deadliest of 1860

By state

Filed under the state each path begins in.

State	Significant tornadoes
Iowa	5
Indiana	3
Illinois	3
Pennsylvania	2
Alabama	1
Mississippi	1
Ohio	1
Nebraska	1
Kansas	1
Minnesota	1
Missouri	1

Every significant tornado of 1860

Times are local standard time, where the record has one. Blank cells are not recorded.

February 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
February 24		Unrated	Demopolis, AL

March 31 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 31		Unrated	Marion Station/Goodrich, MS			1

April 8 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 8		Unrated	Fanklin Co, OH

April 16 3 tornadoes

Date	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Deaths	Injuries
April 16	Unrated	Terre Haute, IN	1.7	1	18
April 16	Unrated	Ashboro, IN
April 16	Unrated	Carlinville, IL			1

May 15 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 15		Unrated	Perry Township, IN

May 30 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 30		Unrated	Waverly, NY	5.0		1	10
May 30	12:00 PM EST	Unrated	Adams/Maysville/S Brookville, PA	32.1	600	7	30

June 3 7 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
June 3	4:30 PM CST	Unrated	New Providence/Union Township/Pritchard's Grove/Quebec/S Vinton, IA	58.8		7	50
June 3	5:30 PM CST	Unrated	NW Palo/N Cedar Rapids/Greenfield Township/Rome Township, IA	34.5	400	9	50
June 3	5:45 PM CST	Unrated	S Bertram/S Mt. Vernon/Lisbon/St. Mary's/Pioneer Township/Mechanicsville/N Lowden/N Wheatland/SW Dewitt, IA	50.1	400	24	60
June 3	6:00 PM CST	Unrated	SW Cedar Rapids/N Western College/Rogers Grove, IA	20.2	400	8	20
June 3	6:20 PM CST	F4	Camanche tornado, Iowa and Illinois	81.2	1,000	92	200
June 3	8:45 PM CST	Unrated	N Tampico/Harmon Township/Marion Township/N Amboy/Willow Creek Township/Shabbona, IL	58.7	400	8	25
June 3	9:30 PM CST	Unrated	W Elgin/Lake Zurich/Dundee, IL	16.2			4

June 8 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 8		Unrated	Bellevue, NE
June 8		Unrated	Stanton, KS			6

July 3 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 3		Unrated	W Wasioja, MN

July 4 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 4	5:00 PM CST	Unrated	Doniphan Co., KS

About the record before 1950

Significant tornadoes only: Grazulis listed tornadoes rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. Most tornadoes are weaker than F2, so the list holds a fraction of the tornadoes that happened.
The early years are thin: A tornado is on record only where somebody saw it and wrote it down. The count rises through the 1800s with settlement and newspapers, not with the weather.
Rated from accounts: Grazulis rated each tornado decades later from newspaper reports, Weather Bureau records and local histories, not from a damage survey.
The tracks are reconstructed: Tornado Archive drew each path through the places Grazulis names, most often as a straight line from the first to the last. A track can miss a town it hit, and a tornado with one named place is a point. The counties are today’s.
A separate record: SPC’s database, from 1950, counts every confirmed tornado of any strength. The two are kept apart on every page and never added together.

Nearby

Every year before 1950 1950, the first year of SPC's database The tornado profiles

What this means

Ratings are Grazulis's, read from written accounts of the damage; the rating scale is above. About the record before 1950 says what it holds and what it leaves out.

Sources

Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 and Significant Tornadoes 1880-1989, as digitized by Tornado Archive (Maas and others, 2024). Public domain. Counties assigned by this site from today’s NWS county lines.