Topeka, KS Tornado History — 158 Tornadoes Since 1950
How many tornadoes has Topeka, KS had?
Topeka has had 158 tornadoes on record within 25 miles since 1950, including 18 violent (EF3+) tornadoes.
When was the most recent tornado near Topeka?
The most recent tornado within 25 miles of Topeka was an EF0 on May 19, 2024.
When is tornado season in Topeka?
May is historically the peak month for tornadoes near Topeka, with 58 on record. Spring through early summer (April–June) generally sees the highest activity across most of the central and southern United States.
At a Glance
Recent Tornado Activity Near Topeka
The last 20 years of confirmed tornadoes within 25 miles — 35 total, averaging 1.8 per year over this window.
Tornadoes by Decade
Tornadoes by Enhanced Fujita Rating
F0–F5 ratings (pre-2007) are grouped with their EF equivalents. The Enhanced Fujita scale replaced the original Fujita scale in February 2007.
Tornadoes by Month
Casualties on Record Near Topeka
27 fatalities have been recorded within 25 miles of Topeka since 1950, across 7 events. 889 injuries have been reported across all events. 1966 was the deadliest year on record.
The deadliest single event was a F5 on June 8, 1966, which caused 16 fatalities along a 21.1-mile track.
Notable Tornadoes Near Topeka
About Tornadoes in Topeka
This overview was written August 10, 2026. The tornado counts and notable-event figures elsewhere on this page reflect the latest data and may differ from this summary.
The tornado ledger for Topeka has been kept since the middle of the last century, long enough that its entries belong to different generations of the same Kansas families. An F3 tore along a 127-mile path across the region on April 3, 1956, injuring 4 people. Storms of F4 intensity struck on May 19, 1960, one killing a resident and injuring 92, and another F4 arrived in August 1962. The event seared into local memory came in June 1966, when an F5 cut through the heart of the city, killing 16 people and injuring 450. An F4 a mile wide killed 6 and injured 177 on June 9, 1974. The enhanced-scale era later added lines of its own: an EF2 on February 29, 2012 killed one person, and an EF4 on May 28, 2019 ran 29 miles and injured 4.
Geography explains why the ledger keeps growing. Northeastern Kansas lies where warm, humid air streaming north from the Gulf of Mexico meets drier air pushed east off the High Plains, while a spring jet stream aloft supplies the wind shear that lets thunderstorms rotate. Supercells organize readily in that setting, typically in late spring and early summer. The NOAA Storm Prediction Center maintains the database from which this history is drawn; the event list elsewhere on this page rests on that same record.