ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A historic severe weather outbreak sparked 105 tornadoes tracking a combined length of 771 miles earlier this week. There is no doubt severe weather season is underway. Just last month, a deadly tornado struck Nashville, Tennessee killing at least 25 people. The most recent severe weather outbreak struck the United States on Easter Sunday and it carried over to Monday. The dates were April 12-13, 2020.
Over a span of two days, hundreds of tornado warnings were issued.
Out of those, there were 105 confirmed tornadoes, tracking an impressive combined track length of 771 miles. To put that into perspective, 771 miles is roughly the same distance from Tampa to the northern edge of Delaware Bay in the mid-Atlantic.
The longest path length of the tornadoes came from an EF-3 tornado that struck eastern Mississippi. This tornado tracked 82.61 miles!
One of the strongest tornadoes to strike Mississippi did so just miles away! An EF-4 tornado tracked less than 4 miles away and devastated many communities.
It started over Jeff Davis County, Mississippi and tracked 68 miles. According to the NWS survey crew, this tornado had a path of at least two miles wide!
That is very rare. In fact, the widest tornado ever documented occurred in El Reno, Oklahoma on May 31, 2013 with a width of 2.6 miles.
Things got so dangerous that there were two “Tornado Emergencies” issued simultaneously in the same region. A Tornado Emergency is the highest classification for a tornado warning, declaring a tornado actively tearing through a populated area.
Of the 105 confirmed tornadoes, two were rated an EF-4 and 9 tornadoes were rated EF-3. Alabama recorded the most tornadoes at 21. Georgia recorded 20 tornadoes.
April and May are known to be tornadic months in the United States. Nearly half of the tornadoes reported in the United States occur during these two months.
