At a Glance
- Hurricane Beryl blasted the Texas coast with flooding and strong winds.
- But Beryl and its remnant also helped spawn dozens of tornadoes well inland.
- It was the most tornadoes a U.S. tropical system produced since 2005.
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Hurricane Beryl produced more tornadoes in the U.S. than any other tropical system has in almost 19 years, from Texas to upstate New York.
The impressive tally: At least 57 tornadoes have been confirmed by the National Weather Service from Beryl and its remnant low from early July 8 through July 10. As you can see in the map below, these tornadoes tore through parts of six states: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana and New York.
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The last system to generate so many: This tornado count would be fairly impressive for a severe thunderstorm outbreak, much less a hurricane moving inland.
According to statistics compiled by NOAA Storm Prediction Center lead meteorologist Roger Edwards, Beryl's U.S. tornado count was the most by any U.S. tropical cyclone since Hurricane Rita spawned 97 tornadoes in late September 2005.
Other tornado notables: Three dozen of those tornadoes touched down in the area served by the NWS-Shreveport, Louisiana office, the most in a single day in their forecast area since 1995.
Nine tornadoes occurred in Arkansas, the state's most in any July outbreak.
Among eight strong tornadoes (EF2 or higher), one EF3 tore through areas near Mt. Vernon, Indiana. That was the strongest July tornado to occur in the NWS-Paducah, Kentucky, forecast area since 1950.
Why so many tornadoes: As meteorologist Danielle Banks previously explained, hurricanes and tropical storms typically spawn at least a few tornadoes rapidly in their outer rainbands and also from supercells that can flare up as the storm's center moves inland and weakens.
They happen most often along and to the right of the storm's center path, especially in the right front quadrant, as the map below illustrates.
Sometimes, as with Beryl, the combination of warm, humid air and wind shear near the ground is high enough that severe thunderstorms can spawn tornadoes for several afternoons in a row as the tropical cyclone or its remnant moves across the U.S.
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What's typical for tropical tornadoes: According to the SPC's Roger Edwards' research, an average of 65 tornadoes were spawned each hurricane season in the U.S. from tropical cyclones from 1995 through 2023. Edwards noted the number in any given year can vary widely based on how many storms move inland and the parameters needed to generate tornadoes.
As is the case in general with tornadoes, Edwards found over 90 percent of tropical tornadoes are weaker (EF0 or EF1), but still capable of damage. Tropical tornadoes as strong as EF3 are rare, such as we saw in the Mt. Vernon, Indiana, tornado from Beryl's remnant.
Perhaps most importantly, 40 percent of these tropical tornadoes happened while the system was either a tropical depression or a remnant low, according to Edwards. The inland danger from tornadoes and flooding rain from a former hurricane or tropical storm isn't necessarily lower even though its winds have weakened inland.
Beryl flirted with the top five list: Among the many early-season records it smashed, Beryl's tornado tally nearly cracked the top five list of most tornadoes spawned by a U.S. tropical cyclone. Here is that top five list as of March 2024, according to Edwards:
- Hurricane Ivan, 2004 (118 tornadoes)
- Hurricane Beulah, 1967 (115 tornadoes)
- Hurricane Frances, 2004 (103 tornadoes)
- Hurricane Rita 2005, (97 tornadoes)
- Hurricane Katrina 2005, (59 tornadoes)
As you can see, the number of tornadoes from these tropical systems can rival those from the more prolific spring outbreaks, such as in April 2024.
Ivan, Frances and Rita each spawned one F3 tornado. Ivan, Katrina and Rita each spawned at least one deadly tornado.
Four deadly tornadoes claimed a total of seven lives in Florida and Georgia from Ivan.
Beryl was another reminder that tropical systems aren't just coastal. They can have significant impacts hundreds of miles inland and several days after landfall.
MORE ON WEATHER.COM
- Hurricane Beryl Recap
- Lives Washed Away In Deadly Vermont Flooding
- Texas Power Outages From Beryl
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a close encounter with a tornado as a child in Wisconsin. He completed a Bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then a Master's degree working with dual-polarization radar and lightning data at Colorado State University. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on X (formerly Twitter), Threads, Facebook and Bluesky.
