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An extremely rare wintertime tornado outbreak affected the Midwestern United States on January 24, 1967. Of the 30 confirmed tornadoes, 13 occurred in Iowa, nine in Missouri, seven in Illinois, and one in Wisconsin. The outbreak produced, at the time, the northernmost tornado to hit the United States in winter, in Wisconsin, until January 7, 2008. The tornadoes formed ahead of a deep storm system in which several temperature records were broken. The deadliest and most damaging tornado of the outbreak struck Greater St. Louis at F4 intensity, killing three people and injuring 216.
On August 6, 1969, a destructive tornado outbreak affected portions of the Upper Midwest—principally north-central Minnesota—on August 6, 1969. The severe weather event generated 14 confirmed tornadoes, killed 15 people, and caused 109 injuries. To date, the outbreak remains the deadliest on record in the North Woods region of Minnesota. It is also known as the 1969 Minnesota tornado outbreak and the 1969 North Woods tornado outbreak. The most destructive tornado of the outbreak was a 33-mile-long (53 km) violent F4 that leveled miles of timberland and farmland across portions of Crow Wing, Cass, and Aitkin counties in Minnesota, killing at least 12 people and injuring 70 others.
A violent severe weather outbreak struck the Southeast on April 4–5, 1977. A total of 22 tornadoes touched down with the strongest ones occurring in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. The strongest was a catastrophic F5 tornado that struck the northern Birmingham, Alabama, suburbs during the afternoon of Monday, April 4. In addition to this tornado, several other tornadoes were reported from the same system in the Midwest, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina. One tornado in Floyd County, Georgia, killed one person, and another fatality was reported east of Birmingham in St. Clair County. In the end, the entire outbreak directly caused 24 deaths and 158 injuries. The storm system also caused the crash of Southern Airways Flight 242, which killed 72 and injured 22.
On February 19–20, 1884, one of the largest and most widespread tornado outbreaks in American history occurred over the Southeastern United States, known as the Enigma tornado outbreak due to the uncertain number of total tornadoes and fatalities. Nonetheless, an inspection of newspaper reports and governmental studies published in the aftermath reveals successive, long-tracked tornado families striking Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, with an estimation of at least 51—and possibly 60 or more—tornadoes.
The 1973 San Justo tornado was an extremely powerful F5 tornado which struck San Justo, a town in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, on January 10, 1973. At least 63 people were reported dead and 350 were reported injured as it cut a 330-yard-wide (300 m) swath through the town. It was the most violent tornado ever recorded in South America, and also the entire Southern Hemisphere. This tornado was widely considered to have been an F5 on the Fujita Scale, and in 2017, it received its official F5 rating. The tornado had an economic cost of about $60,000 and was the deadliest tornado in Argentina's history.
On March 21–22, 1952, a severe tornado outbreak generated eight violent tornadoes across the Southern United States, causing 209 fatalities—50 of which occurred in a single tornado in Arkansas. In addition, this tornado outbreak is the deadliest on record to ever affect the state of Tennessee, with 66 of the fatalities associated with this outbreak occurring in the state; this surpasses the 60 fatalities from a tornado outbreak in 1909, and in terms of fatalities is well ahead of both the 1974 Super Outbreak and the Super Tuesday tornado outbreak, each of which generated 45 and 31 fatalities, respectively. The severe weather event also resulted in the fourth-largest number of tornado fatalities within a 24-hour period since 1950. To date this was considered the most destructive tornado outbreak in Arkansas on record.
On March 21–22, 1932, a deadly tornado outbreak struck the Midwestern and Southern United States. At least 38 tornadoes—including 27 deadly tornadoes and several long-lived tornado families—struck the Deep South, killing more than 330 people and injuring 2,141. Tornadoes affected areas from Mississippi north to Illinois and east to South Carolina, but Alabama was hardest hit, with 268 fatalities; the outbreak is considered to be the deadliest ever in Alabama, and among the worst ever in the United States, trailing only the Tri-State tornado outbreak in 1925, with 751 fatalities, and the Tupelo–Gainesville outbreak in 1936, with 454 fatalities. The 1932 outbreak is believed to have produced 10 violent tornadoes, eight of which occurred in Alabama alone.
On March 16–17, 1942, a deadly late-winter tornado outbreak struck a large area of the Central and Southern United States, killing 149 people and injuring at least 1,312. At least five states reported violent tornadoes, from Illinois and Indiana south to Mississippi, beginning with an F4 tornado in the morning in Illinois. Intense activity spread south to the Gulf Coast and north to the Michigan–Indiana border as the day went on. Seven violent tornadoes were reported, one of which was a powerful F5 in Illinois. A long-tracked F4 tornado family in Mississippi claimed 63 lives as well, becoming the deadliest event of the outbreak. Another long-lived F4 in Tennessee killed 15 more people, and a series of intense tornadoes caused 24 other deaths in Kentucky. The outbreak also produced 18 tornadoes that caused at least one death—ranking eighth on a list of similar events since 1880 by tornado researcher Thomas P. Grazulis.
On January 11, 1898, a series of tornadoes affected the U.S. states of Arkansas and Missouri, as well as the Indian Territory, presently Oklahoma. At least five in all, these included the Fort Smith tornado, which struck the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Retroactively rated a violent (F4) tornado on the modern-day Fujita scale, it was part of a tornado family that formed 60 mi (97 km) to the southwest, and struck the city around midnight, killing 55 people and injuring 113. The twister nearly destroyed the newly constructed Fort Smith High School that had opened in fall 1897. Other tornadoes were reported that night in Arkansas and Missouri. The Fort Smith tornado is tied with one that struck Warren in 1949, also rated F4, for the deadliest tornado to strike Arkansas.
A deadly tornado outbreak devastated parts of Louisiana and Tennessee on February 11–13, 1950. The outbreak covered about a day and a half and produced numerous tornadoes, mostly from East Texas to the lower Mississippi Valley, with activity concentrated in Texas and Louisiana. Most of the deaths occurred in Louisiana and Tennessee, where tornadoes killed 25 and 9 people, respectively. Several long-lived tornado families struck the Red River region of northwestern Louisiana, especially the Shreveport–Bossier City area. One of the tornadoes attained violent intensity, F4, on the Fujita scale and caused eight deaths, including six at the Shreveport Holding and Reconsignment Depot near Barksdale Air Force Base. It remains one of the top ten deadliest tornadoes on record in the state of Louisiana, in tenth place. Also in Louisiana, two other destructive tornadoes on parallel paths killed 16. Seven additional deaths occurred across the border in East Texas. Nine people died in a tornado in western Tennessee as well. In all, the entire outbreak killed at least 41 people and left 228 injured. Also, several long-tracked tornadoes recorded in the outbreak likely contained more, shorter-lived tornadoes.
On April 18–20, 1880, a tornado outbreak impacted the Midwestern United States, producing numerous strong tornadoes, killing at least 166 people, and injuring more than 516 others. The outbreak generated five violent tornadoes, including three long-tracked F4 tornadoes in Missouri that killed at least 144 people. Two of the tornadoes followed parallel paths and occurred simultaneously near Springfield, one of which devastated the town of Marshfield, causing 92 fatalities there. Other deadly, intense tornadoes occurred in the Great Lakes region and in Arkansas, including another F4 tornado that destroyed a third of El Paso, Arkansas, killing four or more people.
The tornado outbreak of May 1927 occurred between May 7–9 in the Midwestern and Southern United States, producing numerous strong tornadoes and killing at least 217 people.
On April 9, 1919, a tornado outbreak occurred in the Southern Great Plains of the US, producing numerous strong tornadoes and killing at least 92 people, mainly in portions of North and East Texas. The entire outbreak occurred overnight and produced at least seven intense, deadly tornadoes, the deadliest of which was a long-tracked, extremely violent F4 in East Texas that killed 24 people and injured 100 others. A separate F4 long-tracker in the same region killed 17 others and injured 60 more. A deadly F3 also claimed nine or more lives in southern Oklahoma, and a long-lived F3 in East Texas crossed into Arkansas, killing eight. Several of the tornadoes in this outbreak may have been families of two or more twisters.
On November 7–8, 1957, a significant tornado outbreak affected portions of the Southern United States, particularly the Golden Triangle of Southeast Texas and parts of Acadiana in Louisiana. The severe weather event inflicted 12 deaths and more than 200 injuries, especially in the vicinity of Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas. The most intense tornado of the outbreak, retrospectively rated F4 on the Fujita scale, struck the town of Orange, Texas, killing one person, injuring 81 others, and causing $11⁄2 million in losses. The deadliest tornado of the outbreak was an F3 that killed four people northwest of Carencro, Louisiana. The costliest tornado of the outbreak, also rated F3, caused $2.3 million in losses in the town of Groves, Texas, killing a few people there. Other intense tornadoes occurred as far east as Mississippi and North Carolina. In all, at least 28 tornadoes were confirmed, yet others were likely present as well.
Several destructive tornadoes struck the Southeastern United States, primarily along and east of the Lower Mississippi Valley, on February 13, 1952. Multiple intense tornadoes touched down throughout the day, three of which were killers. The deadliest and most destructive tornado of the outbreak was a violent F4 that touched down in south-central Tennessee, killing three people and injuring 44 others. A similarly destructive tornado—albeit of weaker, F2 intensity—formed from the same storm as the preceding F4 and became the second costliest of the outbreak. Another intense tornado affected the Mississippi embayment near Manila, Arkansas, injuring five people, and a pair of deadly F3s in Alabama claimed a combined two lives. In all, the outbreak killed five people and injured 102 others.
A deadly tornado outbreak produced at least 14 destructive tornadoes across Kansas, Louisiana, and Arkansas on Monday, January 3, 1949. The worst of the outbreak was a deadly, devastating and violent (estimated) F4 tornado that tore though Warren, Arkansas. Part of a multi-state family, the tornado killed at least 55 people, a majority of the deaths in the outbreak, and is now tied with the Fort Smith tornado from 1898 as the deadliest in Arkansas history. In addition, a pair of deadly F3s in Louisiana, along with a few other strong tornadoes in Arkansas, claimed five more lives. Overall, a total of 60 or more people were killed from the outbreak, and over 500 sustained injuries.
From April 5–8, 1954, a tornado outbreak sequence affected portions of the Central and Southern United States, primarily the Upper Midwest. The U.S. states of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin were hardest hit by tornadoes. The first day of the severe weather event featured three intense tornadoes along the Missouri–Iowa border, including a long-tracked F4 that obliterated rural farmsteads. The deadliest tornado of the sequence, retroactively rated F3, struck Illinois a few days later, killing one person and injuring 13 others. Other strong tornadoes hit Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, and Georgia during the sequence. In all, the event resulted in 22 injuries.
On March 24–25, 1954, a small-but-intense tornado outbreak affected portions of the Central and Southern United States, killing two people and injuring 11. The outbreak generated 18 significant tornadoes, including a deadly, violent event, retroactively rated F4, in Texas County, Missouri. Another intense tornado, rated F3, injured two people in a rural part of Barry County, also in Missouri. An F2 tornado in Benton County, Missouri, injured four. In addition, an F1 tornado in Collin County, North Texas—in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex—injured four more. At least four tornadoes also occurred in or near Greater St. Louis, causing locally extensive damage, and a quartet of strong tornadoes hit Oklahoma, with a few more F2s striking Arkansas.
From April 30–May 1, 1949, a tornado outbreak swept eastward across the United States, beginning over the Great Plains. The severe weather event claimed 10 lives and inflicted over 100 injuries. It produced several deadly tornadoes, mostly in Oklahoma, including a pair that killed three each on April 30. The most intense tornado of the outbreak, retroactively rated a violent F4, tracked across parts of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area that day. A deadly F3 the following day claimed a life in Louisiana as well. This outbreak alone set an official monthly record of tornadoes to date in Oklahoma.
References
- ↑ Agee and Childs 2014, p. 1494.
- ↑ Brooks 2004, p. 310.
- ↑ Grazulis 1990, p. ix.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Grazulis 1993, p. 750.
- ↑ Grazulis 1984, p. A-29.
- ↑ Grazulis 1993, pp. 750–1.
- 1 2 3 Grazulis 1993, p. 751.
Sources
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- Brooks, Harold E. (April 2004). "On the Relationship of Tornado Path Length and Width to Intensity". Weather and Forecasting . 19 (2): 310–19. Bibcode:2004WtFor..19..310B. doi: 10.1175/1520-0434(2004)019<0310:OTROTP>2.0.CO;2 .
- Cook, A. R.; Schaefer, J. T. (August 2008). "The Relation of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) to Winter Tornado Outbreaks". Monthly Weather Review . 136 (8): 3121–3137. Bibcode:2008MWRv..136.3121C. doi: 10.1175/2007MWR2171.1 .
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- National Historical Company (1882). "34: Tornadoes". The History of Nodaway County, Missouri. National Historical Company. pp. 502–11.