Tornadoes of 1906

Grazulis's record has 48 significant tornadoes in the United States in 1906, which killed 67 people and injured 472. 5 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.

1905 1907

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 1906

The deadliest of 1906

By state

Filed under the state each path begins in.

State	Significant tornadoes
Texas	9
Oklahoma	6
Alabama	4
Mississippi	4
Minnesota	4
Louisiana	4
Missouri	2
Illinois	2
Kansas	2
Nebraska	2
Iowa	2
North Dakota	2
Georgia	1
Michigan	1
Wisconsin	1
New York	1
Tennessee	1

Every significant tornado of 1906

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

January 3 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
January 3	9:00 AM CST	F2	SE Montgomery, AL	0.9	300	1	5
January 3	11:30 AM CST	F3	Josie/NE Banks, AL		200	2	20
January 3	1:15 PM EST	F2	Albany, GA	5.2	75	4	50
January 3	10:00 PM CST	F2	Jacksonville, TX	0.9	50		5

March 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 2	6:10 PM CST	F4	Meridian, MS	11.2	150	23	60

April 8 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries
April 8	11:30 AM CST	F2	Fayette, MO
April 8		F2	St. Jacob/Highland, IL	5.1
April 8	2:00 PM CST	F2	E Marble Hill, MO	12.2	200
April 8	5:45 PM CST	F2	N Cobden/S Makanda, IL	4.4		6

April 12 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 12	4:00 PM CST	F2	Briggs, TX	4.8	150		40
April 12	8:00 PM CST	F2	Hearne/Wheelock/Edge, TX	15.0	50

April 26 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 26	6:15 PM CST	F4	Bellevue, TX	8.4	1,000	17	50

April 30 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 30	4:20 PM CST	F3	SW Cedar Bluffs, KS/N Marion/NW Danbury, NE	20.1	600	1	4
April 30	6:00 PM CST	F2	W Oxford, NE	7.4			5

May 2 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries
May 2	6:15 PM CST	F4	NW Blue Ridge, TX	8.9	300	11
May 2	6:30 PM CST	F2	S Trenton/Bailey, TX	13.5	100	5
May 2	6:45 PM CST	F2	Windom/S Honey Grove/Petty, TX	10.4	50

May 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 24	8:40 PM CST	F3	E Starrett/S Rockett to W Palmer, TX	7.3	100	1	11

May 25 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 25	3:20 PM CST	F2	Uehling/W Oakland/W Lyons, NE	14.5	100
May 25	5:00 PM CST	F3	Whiting, IA	7.1	100		1

June 4 7 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
June 4		F2	ENE Binger, OK
June 4		F2	SW Watonga, OK
June 4	4:00 PM CST	F2	NW Sherman/SE Denison, TX	7.7	200
June 4	4:00 PM CST	F2	E Indianola/W Canadian, OK	9.8	100
June 4	5:30 PM CST	F3	W Bridgeport, OK	6.2	800		1
June 4	5:30 PM CST	F3	NW Chickasha, OK	6.2		2	5
June 4	6:30 PM CST	F2	Alex, OK	20.5			8

June 5 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 5	1:30 PM EST	F2	W Morenci/S Jasper, MI	11.6			4

June 6 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
June 6	4:45 PM CST	F3	Burr Oak, IA/SE Newhouse to S Spring Grove, MN	18.3	100		3
June 6	5:00 PM CST	F2	S Wyoming/Stacy, MN	4.9	50		3
June 6	5:00 PM CST	F3	E North Branch/W Sunrise, MN	14.6	200	1	8
June 6	5:45 PM CST	F4	SW Caledonia, MN to NE Coon Valley, WI	28.3	300	4	26
June 6	6:00 PM CST	F4	Goessel, KS	12.0	200		10
June 6	7:00 PM CST	F2	E Sparta, WI	14.7	100

June 15 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 15	10:00 PM EST	F2	N Brockport, NY	0.9	30	1

June 28 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 28	4:00 PM CST	F2	Rugby/W Zion, ND	20.0
June 28	5:00 PM CST	F3	Cando, ND	15.1	500		2

September 19 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 19	11:00 AM CST	F2	S Springfield, MN	5.3	100

October 5 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
October 5	4:00 AM CST	F2	Henagar, AL	4.8	300
October 5	6:00 AM CST	F2	St. James Parish, LA		100		20
October 5	6:30 AM CST	F3	Slaughter/Zachary, LA	20.4	100	3	20
October 5	7:15 AM CST	F3	Ponchatoula, LA	9.9	75	4	30
October 5	8:15 AM CST	F2	New Orleans, LA	4.2	75		21
October 5	10:30 AM CST	F2	Oak Grove, AL		30

November 17 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Deaths	Injuries
November 17	7:00 PM CST	F2	Tchula, MS		2
November 17	8:00 PM CST	F2	Winona, MS
November 17	10:00 PM CST	F2	Mathiston/Maben, MS	10.2	1	30

November 19 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
November 19	2:00 AM CST	F2	Mulberry, TN		400		8

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.