How Long Do Tornadoes Last And How Far Can They Track? It Depends - From Seconds To Multiple Hours

Tornadoes are all unique when it comes to various factors, including how far they travel and how long they last. Rare ones can track for multiple hours and over 100 miles, while others last a minute or less and might only track for less than a tenth of a mile.

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Why No Two Tornadoes Are Ever The Same

Each tornado is unique when it comes to intensity, how fast they travel and their size, but they can also have a wide range when it comes to their longevity and how far they track.

(MORE: How Fast Do Tornadoes Travel?)

Big Picture: How Long Most Tornadoes Last

A majority of tornadoes, on average, last less than 10 minutes, according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. The average distance they have tracked based on data since 1950 is about 3.5 miles.

Those are just averages, however, with some tornadoes being much longer-lived and others so brief they can be hard to document. Let's take a closer look at a couple recent extreme examples that illustrate this fact.

A tornado near Dimmitt, Texas, on June 2, 1995. Image credit: NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) | Harald Richter — A tornado near Dimmitt, Texas, on June 2, 1995.
(NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) | Harald Richter)

Deeper Dive: Some Can Be Extremely Brief

One of the most brief tornadoes I can remember in recent years for which the National Weather Service surveyed occurred in South Florida on May 3, 2019. That twister tracked just 0.03 miles near Loxahatchee, Florida, or about 20 miles to the west of West Palm Beach.

It lasted a minute or less and was 20 yards wide, but the tornado did cause EF0 damage to a horse stable, fencing and some trees in a small area.

This tornado is not alone when it comes to such brevity since numerous others have lasted a minute or less in history

(MORE: What Meteorologists Call Different Types Of Tornadoes)

An example of short-lived tornado. — Example track of a brief tornado that struck to the west of West Palm Beach, Florida, on May 3, 2019. The blue outline shows the tornado damage path surveyed by the National Weather Service.

Deeper Dive: Others Can Last More Than 1 Hour

More volatile tornado setups can result in tornadoes that travel many tens of miles, and in rare cases over 100 miles.

The recent March 14-16, 2025, tornado outbreak in the Midwest and South is one such example. It packed a tornado that tracked 82 miles through northeast Arkansas and had multiple others with tracks over 50 miles.

One of the longest-lived tornadoes in recent years struck Dec. 10, 2021, from far northwest Tennessee to central Kentucky. This twister tracked 165.7 miles over 178 minutes, or nearly 3 hours, causing EF4 damage in Mayfield, Kentucky.

Tornadoes this long in duration are extremely rare, and this one ranks among the longest-lived twisters in U.S. history.

Example of a long-lasting tornado. — Example of a long-lived tornado path that cause EF4 damage in Mayfield, Kentucky, on Dec. 10, 2021. The red line is the tornado's path surveyed by the National Weather Service.

Chris Dolce has been a senior digital meteorologist with weather.com for nearly 15 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.