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How rare is a Hampton tornado?

Posted at 8:18 PM, Jun 03, 2012
and last updated 2012-06-05 08:05:32-04

After Friday’s tornado in Hampton, many locals are saying, “I don’t ever remember anything like this happening before.” So I dug through the records to see just how rare a Hampton tornado is.

Including Friday, there have been 6 tornadoes in the city of Hampton since 1950. Here are the numbers…

9/5/1979, F2, 30 yards wide, ~0 mile path, $50K-$500K damage

9/4/1996, F0, 30 yards wide, 2 miles path, $1000 damage

9/4/1999, F2, 300 yards wide, 1 mile path, $7.72M damage

8/30/2004, F0, 20 yards wide, ~0 mile path, $10K damage

8/11/2006, F0, 25 yards wide, 0.3 miles path, $0 damage

6/2/2012, EF1, 0.3 miles wide, 3.5 miles path, $4.3M damage

Friday’s tornado was not the strongest but did have the widest path and longest path. Of these 6 tornadoes there were no deaths and only 15 reported injuries.

If you are a fan of statistics, ponder this… Based on the tornado data since 1950, Hampton averages one tornado about every decade.