Past Christmas tornadoes
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From the National Weather Service in Washington, DC
Notable U.S. tornado events with at least one F2 (minimum 113-mph) tornado between Dec. 24 and Dec. 26:
— Dec. 24-25, 1964: 14 tornadoes (three of them F3), Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia. Two deaths in Georgia; about 30 people injured.
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— Dec. 25, 1969: 12 tornadoes (two F3) in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana One death in Louisiana, 17 injuries.
— Dec. 25-26, 1973: 7 tornadoes, two of them F2, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia. Two injuries.
— Dec. 24, 1975: 3 tornadoes (one F3) in Texas and Florida. No injuries or deaths.
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— Dec. 24-25, 1977: 3 tornadoes (1 F3) in Mississippi and Florida. Seven injuries.
— Dec. 24-26, 1982: 29 tornadoes (one F4, two F3), in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi. Three deaths in Arkansas and Missouri; 32 injuries.
— Dec. 24, 1988; 1 tornado (F4) in Tennessee. One death; seven injuries.
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— Dec. 24, 1997: 3 tornadoes (one F2) in Alabama. Five injured.
— Dec. 25, 2006: 6 tornadoes (four F2) in Georgia and Florida. 14 injured.
— Dec. 24, 2009: 22 tornadoes (three F2) in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Four injured.
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Other statistics:
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida are the most likely states to have tornado events around this time of year.
The last time a number of tornadoes impacted the Gulf Coast area around Christmas Day was in 2009, when 22 tornadoes occurred during the morning of December 24th.
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In over 60 years there have been two EF4-rated tornadoes on Christmas Eve, one in 1982 in Arkansas, the other in 1988 in Tennessee.
The last killer tornado around Christmas was a Christmas Eve F4 in Tennessee in 1988, killing one person and injuring 7.