Tornadoes of 1914

Grazulis's record has 42 significant tornadoes in the United States in 1914, which killed 40 people and injured 382. 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.

1913 1915

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 1914

The deadliest of 1914

By state

Filed under the state each path begins in.

State	Significant tornadoes
Kansas	9
Texas	7
Illinois	5
Oklahoma	4
Michigan	3
South Dakota	3
Wisconsin	2
Pennsylvania	2
Iowa	2
Florida	1
Arkansas	1
Tennessee	1
Minnesota	1
North Carolina	1

Every significant tornado of 1914

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

February 6 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
February 6	8:30 AM CST	F2	Milton/Laurel Hill, FL	40.8	50

March 27 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 27	6:45 PM CST	F4	S Tye, TX	1.4	400

March 28 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 28	5:30 PM CST	F4	N Chase to E Geneseo, KS	17.5	200		5

March 30 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 30	2:30 PM CST	F2	Ovilla/Wilmer, TX	11.0	50	2	2

March 31 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 31	4:00 PM CST	F2	Enid/Breckenridge, OK	7.0	50		1

April 17 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
April 17	5:30 PM CST	F4	S Deer Creek, OK to W Geuda Springs, KS	25.2	600		12
April 17	7:30 PM CST	F2	W Winfield, KS	4.7
April 17	8:15 PM CST	F3	Chickasha, OK	10.2		1	15

April 24 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
April 24	5:15 PM CST	F3	SW Fairbury/Otto to N Kankakee, IL	67.4
April 24	6:30 PM CST	F2	Clifton/SE Momence, IL	20.4		1	2
April 24	6:30 PM CST	F3	N Elkhorn/W Troy, WI	4.0	150		7

April 26 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 26	5:00 PM CST	F3	Peacock, TX	9.8	400		4

April 27 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 27	11:30 AM CST	F2	N Hearne, TX
April 27	4:15 PM CST	Unrated	Murfreesboro, AR			1	14

May 3 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Deaths	Injuries
May 3	5:15 PM CST	F2	NW Little York/S Seaton, IL	5.5
May 3	5:30 PM CST	F3	Little York to Alexis, IL	11.2	1	2
May 3	6:30 PM CST	F2	W Galva/N Kewanee, IL	10.0

May 4 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
May 4	5:30 AM CST	F2	N Parker, TX	1.9	100		2
May 4	8:00 AM CST	F2	Maud/Redwater, TX	8.0	200	4	42
May 4	8:30 AM CST	F2	NW Pittsburg, TX	3.1	50		7
May 4	10:30 PM CST	F2	E Delina, TN			1	2

June 4 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 4	3:00 PM EST	F2	Confluence/Ursina, PA	4.2	70	1	9

June 5 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 5	5:30 PM CST	F2	E Alton/SE Sheldon, IA	15.2	100
June 5	6:00 PM CST	F3	NE Archer/SE Sheldon/Sanborn/S Melvin, IA	11.1	200	3	20

June 17 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 17	5:00 PM EST	F3	SE Charlotte/Petrieville, MI	16.9	150		20

June 23 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 23	7:00 PM CST	F3	Altamont Township, SD	6.4		1	12
June 23	9:00 PM CST	F2	Watertown/N Goodwin, SD	15.3	400		30

June 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 24	12:30 AM CST	F2	Halder, WI		30	5	20

June 25 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 25	7:00 PM MST	F2	SE Isabel, SD	2.4	70

June 27 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 27	5:30 PM EST	F3	S Stockbridge/Unadilla to Silver Lake, MI	11.3			15
June 27	6:00 PM EST	F2	North Star/N Edgewood, MI	7.1	70

August 14 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 14	6:00 PM CST	F2	N Morris/S Hancock, MN	19.8	200	1	2

August 21 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 21	5:50 PM EST	F3	Wilkes-Barre, PA	3.5	100	7	75

October 9 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries
October 9	5:30 PM CST	F3	NW Fredonia to W Chanute, KS	15.5		1
October 9	5:30 PM CST	F3	SW Severy/N Howard, KS	19.9
October 9	6:00 PM CST	F4	New Albany, KS	14.6	400	2	20
October 9	6:20 PM CST	F2	W New Albany, KS
October 9	6:30 PM CST	F3	S Fall River to Coyville, KS	15.5	400
October 9	6:30 PM CST	F3	New Albany, KS	11.7	200	2	13
October 9	7:30 PM CST	F2	Coal Creek, KS	1.7	100
October 9	8:00 PM CST	F4	NW Commerce, OK to SE Galena, KS	16.4	200	6	14

October 15 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
October 15	2:45 PM EST	F2	Concord, NC	2.2	50		15

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.