What is the most powerful tornado and what is its name?

Answer 1

That is difficult to determine. There have been a number of extremely violent tornadoes recorded, and since actual wind measurements are rare it can be difficult to say if one tornado was stronger than another. Tornadoes do not have names. They are referred to by the places they hit instead. Lists tend to be biased toward more recent events as those usually have more information available. Below are 4 tornadoes that could lay a claim as the strongest tornado on record.

• The Oklahoma City tornado of May 3, 1999 is probably the one most commonly hailed as the strongest on record. This F5 tornado had the fastest winds eve measured on earth: 302 mph. Confusion involving an initial claim of a 318 mph wind misled many into calling the tornado an F6, a rating that was never used. However, most tornadoes do not have their winds measured and it is quite possible that other were stronger, especially since some have produced more impressive damage. Furthermore, the wind measured was not at ground level but over 100 feet off the ground.
• The Jarrell, Texas F5 tornado of May 27, 1997 may have the best claim as the strongest tornado on record. It struck the Double Creek Estates subdivision of Jarrell and produced the most intense tornado damage ever photographed. A portion of the subdivision was completely wiped out with nothing left above ground and no survivors. Unlike other violent tornadoes, this storm did not leave a debris field, only mud, concrete slabs, and small fragments of structures. Houses, trees, streets, driveways, grass, and up to 18 inches of soil were scoured away. Some have attributed the extreme damage to the tornado's slow forward movement leaving areas exposed to powerful winds for longer than the usual amount of time.
• The Philadelphia, Mississippi tornado of April 27, 2011 also lays a possible claim. This tornado started north of Philadelphia and moved across rural areas, never impacting any communities. A few farm houses were destroyed, but the most impressive damage was in a field in Neshoba County where the ground was scoured to a depth of 2 feet in some places. This tornado was fast moving, traveling at 60 mph, which means that this scouring occurred in a very short period of time. However, with no structures nearby it is difficult to compare this to other tornadoes, leaving the question open as to whether the soil was more vulnerable than most to wind erosion.
• The Smithville, Mississippi tornado of April 27, 2011, which formed less than an hour after the Philadelphia tornado dissipated, was also extremely violent. It reached EF5 intensity less than 2 minutes after touching down and swept through the town of Smithville at over 70 mph. Within the large swath of moderate to severe damage was a narrow trail of extreme damage. Ground was scoured to a depth of up to 18 inches and a number of houses and a church were completely swept away. The concrete slab of one house had started to buckle and was partly pulled away from the ground. As with the Philadelphia tornado, this tornado's swift movement meant that the extreme damage would have been done in a very short time.