History

Te Puke main street
Tornadoes have existed for millions of years, but humans have only been documenting them for a few centuries. The earliest recorded tornado may have been in Ireland in 1054. In the United States, which experiences the most tornadoes globally, the first documented twister was in Massachusetts in 1671. Early scientific studies of tornadoes began in the 19th century, with pioneers like John Park Finley conducting research. Tornado forecasting became more advanced in the mid-20th century, with the U.S. Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) issuing the first official tornado warning in 1948.



Historical Tornadoes

Te Puke region
One of the deadliest tornadoes in history was the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, which tore through the heart of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing nearly 700 people and holding the record for the longest continuous tornado path at 219 miles. Another devastating event was the 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado that was a large, long-lived and exceptionally powerful F5 tornado in which the highest wind speed ever measured on planet earth was recorded at 321 miles per hour by a Doppler on Wheels radar.