What tornado holds the record for the widest damage path?

The 2013 El Reno tornado holds the record for the widest damage path, reaching about 2.6 miles across at its peak.

The tornado formed near El Reno, Oklahoma, on May 31, 2013, during a major outbreak. Mobile Doppler radar and storm surveys showed that its circulation expanded dramatically as it crossed rural Canadian County. It was a multiple-vortex tornado, meaning several smaller, intense vortices rotated within a much larger circulation. That structure helped produce an exceptionally broad path.

El Reno was initially classified as an EF5 because mobile radar measured extreme winds, but the official rating was later lowered to EF3 because the Enhanced Fujita rating is based on surveyed damage rather than radar-measured wind speed. The tornado killed eight people, including storm chasers, and traveled roughly 16 miles.

A common mix-up is confusing width with intensity. El Reno was the widest recorded tornado, but its EF3 rating does not mean it was the strongest tornado ever measured.