This page documents notable tornadoes and tornado outbreaks worldwide in 2009. Strong and destructive tornadoes form most frequently in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Bangladesh, and Eastern India, but can occur almost anywhere under the right conditions. Tornadoes also develop occasionally in southern Canada during the Northern Hemisphere's summer and somewhat regularly at other times of the year across Europe, Asia, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Tornadic events are often accompanied by other forms of severe weather, including strong thunderstorms, strong winds, and hail. In the U.S., there were 1,304 reports of tornadoes received by the Storm Prediction Center, and 1,147 tornadoes were confirmed to have taken place. Worldwide, 73 fatalities were caused by tornadoes; 22 in the United States, 20 in India, 11 in Argentina, eight in the Philippines, four each in Canada and Brazil, two in Greece and one each in Serbia and Russia.
Tornadic activity in 2009 began with the development an EF1 tornado near Stringer, Mississippi on January 3 and ended with the dissipation of an EF0 tornado near Vancleave, Mississippi on December 24. During the year the two strongest tornadoes were both assessed as an EF4 – one occurred in Oklahoma on February 10 and the second occurred in Tennessee on April 10. During the early months of the year tornadic activity remained mostly below average in contrast to an active trend of tornadoes in 2008. Activity peaked in April and May as a result of destabilizing atmospheric conditions and featured a bulk of the year's tornadoes. However, the number of developing tornadoes subsequently began to wane and remained generally inactive for the latter half of 2009.
Synopsis In contrast to the first nine months of 2008, the final quarter was fairly inactive overall, and the inactivity continued into January 2009 with only a few tornadoes in the US the entire month as generally stable air dominated. The pattern broke for the first time on February 10 when a modest tornado outbreak occurred, but produced a deadly tornado in Oklahoma. The severe weather activity changed to a moderate pace for the remainder of February into March, and although the start of the season did not have a large prolific tornado outbreak, it has had several notable events. Overall activity in March ran near normal.
The start of Easter weekend brought the first large outbreak of 2009, with many tornadoes on both April 9 and 10. Steady activity through the remainder of April sent the month above average. May started quite active, but in a rather unusual pattern as most tornadoes in the early part of the month were due to summer-like derechos as opposed to large-scale supercells. The second half of May was unusually quiet, with few significant severe weather events. June saw activity return to an above normal pace, and the middle part of the month was particularly active. However, most of the tornadoes were in open country, and activity was steady over many days as opposed to a large outbreak.
The second half of 2009, overall, was not active. July also ran near normal, but August ran below normal with most of the activity concentrated in a single non-tropical outbreak. Without any landfalling tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and a relatively stable air mass, September was extremely quiet with only a very small number of isolated weak tornadoes. While October was near average tornado-wise, activity stabilized greatly again in November and it produced only three tornadoes, one of the least active months in recent years. December was more active, primarily as a result of a moderate outbreak just before Christmas.
Events
United States yearly total
January
There were 10 tornadoes reported in the United States in January, of which 6 were confirmed. Activity throughout the month was far below-average, with all tornadoes forming within localized events. The most notable tornado was an EF1 that struck McIntosh, Alabama on January 10, causing $2.5 million in damage. No casualties took place throughout the month and total losses from the storms reached $2.7 million.
Across Europe, there were six tornadoes reporting during the month, one of which in Italy was rated F1 on January 27.
February
There were 44 tornadoes reported in the US in February, of which 36 were confirmed.
Across Europe, nine tornadoes were reported during the month. The most intense of these was an F2 (T4) tornado that struck Málaga, Spain on February 1. On February 14, four people were killed in Nizip, Turkey. Overall, tornadoes were responsible for 4 fatalities and 31 injuries in Europe during February.
February 1 (Spain)
25 people were injured when a tornado hit the city of Málaga in Spain, causing extensive damage to property, windows and vehicles. Most of those injured had been cut by glass, although branches and advertising boards blown around by winds up to resulted in some of the injuries. More than 200 houses were affected, along with 400 cars and 100 industrial warehouses. Nearly 1000 children were without classes because of the damage done to six schools in the city. The tornado was rated as an F2 (T4) by the European Severe Weather Database.
February 10–11 (Continental United States)
For February 10, the Storm Prediction Center issued a moderate risk for severe weather for portions of eastern Oklahoma, northeastern Texas, western Arkansas, and northwest Louisiana. It was projected that supercell thunderstorms would form late in the afternoon with a squall line developing during the evening.
During the afternoon, an EF1 tornado touched down northwest of Warr Acres, near the Northwest Expressway, resulting in damage to several businesses in the area. Afterwards, an EF2 tornado struck Edmond, where six homes were destroyed, eight structures received major damage, 51 received minor damage and another 166 structures were affected. Later in the evening, an EF4 tornado devastated the city of Lone Grove, killing eight people, injuring 46 others and destroying 114 homes and mobile homes. The Lone Grove tornado was the deadliest to hit Oklahoma since May 3, 1999 (until May 20, 2013), and the strongest tornado during the month of February in Oklahoma since 1950. The previous strongest were two F3 tornadoes which touched down on February 17, 1961.
The Storm Prediction Center also issued a very large slight risk area for February 11 which encompassed parts of the Deep South, Ohio Valley, Midwest, and Appalachians. However, the risk for tornadoes was lower on February 11 due to stronger frontal forcing (which limited discrete supercell activity) and lower instability. The risk area was upgraded to a moderate risk later in the day, but mainly for damaging downburst winds and isolated tornadoes.
February 16 (Country of Georgia) A tornado, which local authorities believe is the first ever in the nation's history, touched down in the country of Georgia. No injuries were reported, but the tornado damaged trees and around 100 homes in the Tsalendzikhsky and Zugdidsky districts.
February 18
Strong southwesterly winds transported a moist air mass northeastward across the Gulf Coast states and the Tennessee Valley. The moisture combined with daytime heating to support a moderately unstable air mass in advance of a cold front, which pushed southeastward across the Tennessee Valley and Gulf States during the afternoon and evening. The cold front combined with a strong jet stream aloft resulted in the development of severe thunderstorms along the cold front. As a result, a moderate risk of severe weather was issued by the Storm Prediction Center for portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. Several tornadoes touched down during the afternoon and evening hours of February 18. The strongest tornado was rated as an EF3 tornado, which traveled through Wilkes and McDuffie counties in Georgia. It destroyed a cinder block home, damaged 15 homes and destroyed 19 outbuildings. One person was killed in Hancock County after an EF3 tornado destroyed a church and four mobile homes in the area. A mile-wide EF2 tornado that touched down in Meriwether County damaged several homes with one home completely losing its roof. One person was injured by debris as an EF1 tornado traveled through Putnam County, destroying a restaurant on the southwest side of Eatonton. US 129 was shut down after high winds downed power lines. Two different tornadoes caused damage in Jasper County, each with winds of . In Newton County, 20 to 30 homes in a heavily wooded subdivision were damaged by trees blown down by an EF1 tornado that was on the ground for . Other tornadoes, with winds ranging from to , occurred in Taylor, Houston and Oconee counties. In the southern portion of Georgia, a supercell thunderstorm produced two tornadoes (rated EF2 and EF3) in Grady and Thomas counties. In Thomas County alone, there were 160 structures damaged with nine mobile homes destroyed and 20 single family homes destroyed. In Alabama, an EF1 tornado tracked across a forest in Randolph County, where several hundred trees were either snapped off or blown down.
February 28
A cold front pushed into warm, moist air in Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle on February 28, resulting in severe thunderstorms in southern and central Alabama into central Georgia during the morning. At 7:40 a.m CST (1340 UTC) rain fell from the sky and an EF0 tornado blew down several trees and power lines and destroyed two outbuildings in southern Tallapoosa County. Accessed through WebCite. 31 minutes later, an EF1 tornado heavily damaged a building and overturned a car at a car dealership in Lee County. Accessed through WebCite. At 8:26 am CST (1426 UTC), 10 mobile homes, seven homes, two churches and a school were damaged after an EF2 tornado touched down in Salem, which is also in Lee County. Accessed through WebCite.
March
There were 123 tornadoes reported in the US in March, of which 115 were confirmed.
Across Europe, 14 tornadoes were reported throughout March.
March 8
A moderate risk of severe weather was issued for eastern Missouri, Illinois and Indiana on March 8. but was later downgraded to a slight risk for a large portion of the Ohio Valley. The most powerful tornado of the outbreak was an EF3 that struck Fayetteville in Lawrence County, Indiana, where 19 homes were damaged with three of them destroyed. As a line of supercell thunderstorms quickly moved through southwestern Illinois, ten tornadoes were spawned in the region. Near Springfield, Illinois, a tornado, rated EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, destroyed seven homes and damaged thirty others in Loami.
March 12 (Philippines) A large tornado touched down in South Cotabato Province in the township of Tupi around 3:00 pm PHT (0700 UTC). The tornado destroyed 18 hectares of farmland, causing eight million pesos (166,000 USD) in damage during its 15-minute existence. No structures were reported to have been damaged and no one was injured.
March 23–29