NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
According to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), November 2010 was a near–average tornado month, with 57 preliminary tornado reports across the United States, marking the most active November since 2005. Most of the tornado activity was confined to the Gulf Coast region and Southeast, which is typical of this time of year. However, rare tornadoes did form in Wisconsin, Illinois, and New York.
Between November 16th and 17th a rare (for this time of year) overnight severe weather outbreak occurred across New York, and a tornado was confirmed near Philmont around 2:00 am. There have been no previous instances of tornadoes in New York between midnight and dawn during November, and there have only been ten other confirmed tornadoes during November in New York since 1950. A tornado outbreak on the 22nd brought rare (for this time of year) tornadoes to Wisconsin and Illinois. This is the first November tornado in Illinois in five years. Two tornadoes were also confirmed in Wisconsin; the last November tornado in Wisconsin occurred in 1971. Only one time before, in 1960, has a storm system brought two tornadoes to Wisconsin during November. Please see the Global Hazards report for more information on these two outbreaks.
A potent storm system moving across the U.S. on November 29th and 30th brought severe weather to the Southeast, resulting in 29 preliminary tornado reports and the largest tornado outbreak of the month. In addition to the tornadoes, there were also 160 reports of severe winds across the region. The strongest tornado of the outbreak was an EF-4 tornado, with estimated winds of 170 mph that hit central Louisiana. The storm had a path width of 400 yards and was on the ground for 14 miles. According to the National Weather Service, this was the first EF-4 tornado in the Arklatex region (southwest Arkansas, southeast Oklahoma, northeast Texas) since 2004. Tornadoes also impacted Yazoo City, Mississippi, which was hard hit by tornadoes in April 2010. Fortunately, there were no fatalities reported with this tornado outbreak.