Every year the USA faces around 1,225 tornadoes, with May the peak month for these violent and destructive storms. But some states are much more prone to tornadoes than others. Counting down from 50, using UStornadoes.com's Tornado Tracker – which has tracked the average monthly number of tornadoes from 1991 to 2015 (most recent data available) – we highlight which states are the least and most likely to endure the wrath of a twister.

Between 1991 and 2015 Rhode Island averaged 0.2 tornadoes a year. Those that do hit tend to be quite feeble and do little damage, but in 1986 a particularly nasty one struck Cranston and Providence. Registering as an F2 tornado (the third lowest on the Fujita scale, which ranges from F0 to F5), its wind speeds were between 113 and 157 miles per hour (182-253km/h) and it pulled up trees and power lines and knocked over buildings. 

Vermont see extremes of temperature with everything from snow to sunshine, but not often a tornado as the state averaged just 0.6 a year between 1991 and 2015. And the few that have hit were minor, causing some injuries, but no fatalities. New England typically has a short tornado season with July being the month most likely to experience one.

Tornadoes might be rare here – 1.6 on average a year between 1991 and 2015 – but there have been some nasty ones. The Great Wallingford tornado was an F4 tornado that devastated the town of Wallingford and killed 34 people back in 1878. Another F4 hit Windsor in 1979; this caused three fatalities and dozens of injuries.

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Washington is prone to the odd twister. There were on average 2.5 tornadoes a year in Washington state between 1991 and 2015. Most of these were categorised as F0 or F1, but a deadly F3 hit in April 1972, causing the collapse of many buildings and killing six people. 

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Between 1991 and 2015 New York state experienced an average of 9.6 tornadoes a year. However, 2017 bucked the trend with 11 recorded, although they caused no injuries. Since records began in 1950 over 400 twisters have hit New York state and 12 of these resulted in fatalities. On 16 September 2010 the Brooklyn/Queens tornadoes touched down in rush hour causing dramatic damage with at least one fatality attributed to the storm. 

Most tornadoes in the Golden State are mild, registering F0 or F1, but a few have hit F3, with an average of 10.6 storms a year. Although some have hit close to Los Angeles – it's not unheard of that the City of Angels and Orange County are put on tornado watch – they are much more likely to strike in the open, flat agricultural spaces of California's central valley area.

Pennsylvania experiences an average of 16 tornadoes a year with the county of Lancaster tending to be the worst hit. Between 1950 and 2017 it was hit by 33 tornadoes. Next up was Westmoreland, with 32, and then York with 31. Twisters to hit the state have scored between F0 and F5. After a tornado destroyed Kinzua Bridge in Kane in 2003 the remains of the collapsed structure were turned into a viewing platform, the Kinzua Sky Walk.

From 1950 up until 2016, tornadoes were responsible for the deaths of 219 people in the Bluegrass State and over 3,000 injuries. However, on 11 December 2021 alone, at least 100 people were feared dead after a series of six tornadoes ripped through the state. The rare disaster wiped out 75% of Dawson Springs, a town in western Kentucky. A prelimenary report by the NOAA graded the tornadoes at least EF3, with winds of up to 165 miles per hour (265km/h). On average there are 24.2 tornadoes a year here.

Neighbouring North Carolina averaged 29.1 tornadoes a year between 1991 and 2015 too. The state's largest tornado outbreak hit on 16 April 2011 when 31 were reported, five of these were recorded as F3. They ripped through major urban areas, including Fayetteville and downtown Raleigh.

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Despite being sandwiched between Florida and Alabama, which both appear in our top 10, Georgia saw a much lower average than its neighbours, with 29.4 tornadoes a year between 1991 and 2015. Fulton, Worth and Colquitt are the counties most likely to be hit. Pictured is tornado damage on Lake Burton, Rabun County, from 28 April 2011. However, the worst storm recorded was when two twisters merged into one at Gainesville, killing 203 people on 6 April 1936.

Arkansas suffers around 38.2 tornadoes a year. As the state has a low population density and is largely rural however, many researchers believe not all tornadoes are recorded. April is the most common month for tornadoes here, but they do occur in the fall and winter too. They are most likely to hit between the hours of 5pm and 6pm. Pictured is an unidentified man on a phone at a business destroyed by a tornado on 30 April 2014 in Mayflower.

Missouri feels the weight of an average of 46.7 tornadoes a year. On 22 May 2011 a rare multiple-vortex tornado – where two or more cyclones combine within the bigger wind funnel – devastated Joplin in the far west of the state and parts of St Louis, pictured here, in the east. Its mile-wide path left 158 dead and over 1,000 people injured.

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There are 65.4 tornadoes in this state – more than one for every week of the year on average. A particularly important date in the history of the state's tornadoes was 3 May 1999 when 70 struck, causing rampant destruction in and around Oklahoma City. One of these was recorded as an F5 with wind speeds topping 318 miles per hour (512km/h). Pictured here however, is damage from the EF5 tornado that destroyed the city of Moore on 20 May 2013.

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In the heart of Tornado Alley, Kansas was struck by an average of 92.4 tornadoes a year between the years 1991 and 2015. The most deadly tornado hit Sumner County on 25 May 1955, killing 80 people and destroying the town of Udall. On 25 September 1973 one of the state's largest tornadoes tore a 170-mile path through Rice, McPherson, Saline, Ottawa, Dickinson, Clay, Washington and Marshall Counties.

Texas is American's undisputed tornado capital, with 146.7 a year – that's 58% more than Kansas, one place below in the ranking. One of the worst in recent history was the 1979 Red River Valley tornado outbreak, which caused the deaths 54 people and is remembered as "Terrible Tuesday". In April 2019 two children were killed by a falling tree during a storm that hit Lufkin, east Texas, that saw winds of up to 140 miles per hour (225km/h) in Franklin, Robertson County.

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