Tornadoes of 1881

Grazulis's record has 44 significant tornadoes in the United States in 1881, which killed 73 people and injured 461. 9 were 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.

1880 1882

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 1881

The deadliest of 1881

By state

Filed under the state each path begins in.

State	Significant tornadoes
Kansas	11
Iowa	7
Minnesota	7
Mississippi	5
Missouri	2
Michigan	2
Illinois	2
Nebraska	2
Wisconsin	2
Alabama	1
South Dakota	1
Pennsylvania	1
Georgia	1

Every significant tornado of 1881

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

March 17 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 17	1:00 AM CST	F2	Galena, KS	5.6	100		6

March 18 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries
March 18	2:30 PM CST	F2	Fayette, MS	5.1	100
March 18	4:00 PM CST	F2	Senatobia, MS		200	7
March 18	5:00 PM CST	F2	Sumterville, AL		40

April 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 12	3:00 PM CST	F3	Commerce/NW Hernando, MS	35.0	100	10	50

April 30 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 30	6:00 PM CST	F2	NW Saffordville, KS		100

May 13 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 13		F2	Clay Center, KS

May 16 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 16	4:00 PM CST	F2	NE Yates Center, KS				1

June 6 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 6	1:00 PM MST	F2	Deadwood, SD	0.5	100	1	4

June 7 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 7	5:00 PM EST	F2	Washington/Rayne/Cherryhill, PA	14.0	300		4

June 9 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 9	4:30 PM CST	F4	N Solomon Rapids to E Beloit, KS	22.0	300	5	30
June 9	5:00 PM CST	F3	S Minneapolis/Solomon, KS	25.0	200	3

June 11 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
June 11	3:00 PM CST	F2	Hickory Grove Cemetery, IA
June 11	4:00 PM CST	F3	E Britt to E Miller, IA	10.0	50	1	8
June 11	4:15 PM CST	F4	Avon/Colfax, IA	30.1	300	2	6
June 11	6:00 PM CST	F3	NW Winnebago to Danville Township MN	25.0	400	2	15

June 12 7 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
June 12	4:00 PM CST	F2	W Belle Plaine/S Mulvane, KS	12.9	50		3
June 12	4:00 PM CST	F3	NW Mulvane to NE Douglas, KS	16.3	70		2
June 12	4:30 PM CST	F4	Floral, KS	17.1	400	3	22
June 12	4:30 PM CST	F4	W Hopkins, MO	15.0	800	2	15
June 12	4:45 PM CST	F4	NW Olivet to N Richter, KS	25.7	200	5	40
June 12	4:50 PM CST	F4	N Flag Springs, MO	35.0	300	5	20
June 12	7:00 PM CST	F3	N Adair/N Casey, IA	10.1	200		10

June 28 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 28	7:00 PM CST	F4	Cherokee, IA	10.0	400	3	20

July 12 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 12		F2	E Milford, MI
July 12	3:30 PM EST	F2	S Hudson, MI

July 15 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
July 15	2:00 PM CST	F4	Fairfield, MN	30.1	600	4	15
July 15	3:30 PM CST	F4	Cairo/New Ulm, MN	40.1	800	20	93
July 15	4:50 PM CST	F2	S Sleepy Eye, MN	7.7	200
July 15	6:00 PM CST	F2	N Winnebago, MN	4.9	400		11
July 15	6:10 PM CST	F3	S Mt. Lake to W Odin, MN	10.0	200		4

July 16 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 16		F2	Boys Lake, MN

August 5 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 5	4:00 PM CST	F2	E Rock Valley/N Sheldon, IA	29.8	400

September 15 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 15	3:00 PM EST	F2	SW Winterville/E Danielsville, GA	17.2	100		1

September 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 24	5:00 PM CST	F2	NE Clayton/NE Camden, IL	13.0	100	1	10

September 26 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 26	4:35 PM CST	F3	Postville/Post Township, IA	6.0	200		7

September 29 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
September 29	1:20 AM CST	F2	Madison, NE		200	2	15
September 29	4:00 AM CST	F2	Stanton, NE		300		15
September 29	5:00 PM CST	F2	S Yorkville/Oswego, IL	7.0	50
September 29	5:30 PM CST	F3	NE Wautoma/E Wild Rose to Saxeville, WI	5.4	500		4
September 29	6:00 PM CST	F2	S Waupaca, WI	12.2	250		1
September 29	6:30 PM CST	F3	NW Emporia, KS	17.0	100	4	15

November 11 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
November 11	1:00 PM CST	F2	E Fayette, MS	8.2
November 11	2:00 PM CST	F2	N Jackson, MS	8.0			7

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.