2020 Anchorage, Alaska tornado

The 2020 Anchorage, Alaska tornado was an extraordinarily rare and powerful wedge tornado that devastated portions of Anchorage, Alaska during the late afternoon hours of March 19, 2020. The EF3 tornado killed 3 people and injured 136 others as it carved a massive path of destruction, starting at the southwest end of Anchorage and ending northeast of the city. It was the first tornado to strike the state of Alaska since an F0 on July 25, 2005, and is only one of 5 to have ever struck the state. It was also the most powerful tornado ever recorded in the state, and is one of the deadliest tornadoes to have ever occurred in the western half of the United States.

Meteorological Standpoint
The Anchorage tornado was highly unusual in the fact that it occured in the statistically least likely state to experience a tornado in the United States. Alaska almost never experiences tornadoes, with only 4 having been confirmed in the state since 1959. All were rated F0, the lowest category on the fujita scale.

Conditions were unusually favorable that day across southern Alaska. The very northern portion of an extratropical cyclone passing south of the state was expected to bring showers across the region, with some isolated thunderstorms possible. While isolated thunderstorms were mentioned, the National Weather Service office in Anchorage, Alaska never mentioned the possibility of some of them becoming severe.