Estonian Meteorological and Hydrological Institute - Estonia
The oldest tornado recording in the Estonian and Latvian area is dated 22 June 1795 (Schweder, 1873). The most spectacular series of tornadoes occurred on 22 May 1872 in Latvia and South Estonia. 25 manors were heavily damaged, 74 farms and a church (Kempenhof - Jaunkempij) were destroyed, seven persons killed and fourteen injured. This tornado belongs to the F4 event according to the Fujita - Pearson scale. The tornado on 3 August 1922 left one of the longest tracks (P4 class) ever recorded (82 km) in Northern Europe. This tornado was studied in detail by one of the leading tornado researchers of the 20th century Johannes Peter Letzmann, who worked at Tartu University. Strong tornadoes (F2 - F3) occurred in Estonia in 1960, 1966, 1967, 1984, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001.
In recent years 2 - 3 tornadoes hit Estonia in average per year. The annual mean rate of occurrence of tornadoes per year per square kilometre for Estonia is about 6 - 10 · 10-5. It means that per year an average one tornado occurs per 15.000 - 20.000 km2. 1998 was exceptional - 24 tornadoes of F1 - F2 event were observed in Estonia, one tornado per 2.000 km2. Tornadoes are rare in Estonian towns. In the Tallinn suburbs tornadoes occurred on 18 May 1967 (F3, P1) and 9 October 1984 (F3, P1), no human victims were registered.
On July 15, 2000, a tornado passed through the town of Rakvere in North - Eastern Estonia. One person was killed, over 100 houses and garages were damaged. Many trees were broken or uprooted. According to the Fujita - Pearson scale the tornado was an F2 or F3 event, according to the Torro scale it belonged to the classes F5 - F6. The tornado at Rakvere was caused by a northward moving southern cyclon. The fall of the whirl from a thunder cloud was accompanied by an explosion and glow on the ground, which suggests the presence of electric phenomena. The tornado at Rakvere was the most spectacular witnessed in urban areas in Estonia in the last 205 years.
In summer 2001 heavy storms and hurricanes with tornadoes caused a lot damage in North-Eastern part of Estonia - thousands of hectares of forest were destroyed. One person was killed by a fallen tree and one child by the electric current of destroyed wire. Losses to the Estonian economy caused by storms and tornadoes in 2001 reached more than 160 million Estonian crowns.