Farthest distance survived in a tornado
Who
Matt Suter
Where
United States (Fordland)
When

The furthest distance survived in a tornado is 398 m (1,307 ft) achieved by Matt Suter (USA) in Missouri, USA on, 12 March 2006.

On 12 March 2006 19 year old Matt Suter (USA) was engulfed by a tornado while inside a mobile home near Fordland, Missouri, USA. Suter was knocked unconscious and awoke 398 m (1,307 ft) away in a nearby field with only minor injuries.

The tornado was graded F2 on the Fujita scale, meaning it was a ‘significant’ tornado with enough power to rip roofs off houses, lift cars off the ground, and destroy mobile homes.

“It got louder and louder, like 10 military jets coming at us,” Matt told Springfield News-Leader one week afterwards.

The distance Matt flew was measured by a National Weather Service official using a GPS device.

One of the USA’s top tornado researchers, Tom Grazulis, said he didn’t know of anyone who’d been carried that far by a tornado and lived to tell the tale. According to him, Matt eclipsed the previous record set in 1955 by a nine-year-old girl and her pony who were virtually unharmed after being carried 1,000 feet by a tornado.

Read more about Matt's ordeal here