The United States recorded 1,383 tornadoes in 2025, according to the final data of NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. That was 9.1 per cent above the 1996-2025 average of 1,267.6 a year, but well below the 1,805 of 2024. Tornadoes killed 67 people and injured 260. Five charts break the year down by state, by month, by strength and by deaths.
Illinois and Texas tied for first
Illinois and Texas each recorded 126 tornadoes, followed by Oklahoma with 106, Missouri with 99 and North Dakota with 82, according to the chart of tornadoes by state. Tornadoes touched down in 39 states. For Texas, 126 is close to normal: it averages 129.9 a year, by far the most of any state in the 30-year average chart. For Illinois, which averages 64.5, it was almost double. North Dakota's 82 was 2.65 times its average of 30.9, while Kansas, second on the long-term list at 80.9 a year, had only 29.
April was the peak month
April had 313 tornadoes, more than the six months from July to December combined, and the four months from March to June held 78.0 per cent of the year's total, as the chart of tornadoes by month shows. The busiest single day was April 2, with 88 tornadoes. The Storm Prediction Center notes that tornado season moves north as the year goes on, and the year's only EF5 struck North Dakota on June 20.
Kentucky suffered the most deaths
Kentucky lost 19 people, 18 of them in a single EF4 tornado in the south-east of the state on May 16, according to the chart of tornado deaths by state. Missouri lost 16, in tornadoes on March 14 and May 16, and Mississippi and Tennessee 9 each. In all, 23 tornadoes caused deaths in ten states. The EF5 near Enderlin, North Dakota, killed 3 people and was the first tornado rated EF5 since 2013.
Most tornadoes were weak
The chart of tornadoes by EF rating shows 552 EF1 and 416 EF0 tornadoes, together 70.0 per cent of the total. Only 40 reached EF3 or above: 34 EF3, 5 EF4 and 1 EF5. Another 234 could not be rated.
| Chart | Top | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Tornadoes by state | Illinois and Texas | 126 |
| Average per year, 1996-2025 | Texas | 129.9 |
| Tornadoes by month | April | 313 |
| Tornado deaths by state | Kentucky | 19 |
| Tornadoes by EF rating | EF1 | 552 |
How the numbers are counted
The Storm Prediction Center keeps one record per tornado and adds a segment for each state a tornado crosses, so state totals count a border-crossing tornado in every state it entered; they add up to 1,414 against the national 1,383. Wikipedia's running count for the year is 1,430, mostly because it lists more unrated tornadoes, while the two sources agree on the 67 deaths, the 5 EF4s and the single EF5.