Catastrophic December tornadoes slam Mid-Mississippi Valley

[Edim]

"Fortunately, there is no sign that the number or intensity of the most violent tornadoes (EF3+) is increasing. However, tornadoes are becoming more tightly packed within outbreaks, and there are longer stretches in between, leading to more variability from quiet to violent periods and vice versa. Prior to Friday, the U.S. tornado death toll for 2021 was only 14, the third lowest in data going back to 1875. (The lowest on record was 10, set in 2018.) There’s also been a distinct multi-decadal trend for recent outbreaks to shift into and east of the Mississippi Valley, particularly over the Mid-South, as opposed to the more traditional territory of the southern and central Great Plains. Rural areas are typically more populous in the Mid-South than in the Plains, and this area is also more prone to tornadoes developing and striking after dark, a key factor in the Quad-State disaster.

As for seasonal timing, it’s never been impossible to get a violent tornado in December, even as far north as Illinois. At least two F5/EF5 tornadoes are on the record books for December: one in Vicksburg, Mississippi on Dec. 5, 1953, that killed 38 (the deadliest December tornado on record up to this year), and one on Dec. 18, 1957, that struck Sunfield, Illinois, as part of the state’s most severe outbreak on record so late in the year."
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/12/catastrophic-december-tornadoes-slam-mid-mississippi-valley/

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[ShazamIam]

3. Wow, the only high death event after the 50s is the one in Joplin MO in 2011.

[ShazamIam]

2. Very interesting OP, thanks.

[Bayard]

4. Wonder why they didn't cover 1974

I was in that one in high school. Our school bus driver had to drive at right angles to get away from a tornado coming at us from across the cornfields. I grabbed my little brother and shoved him under the seat in front of us--like that was going to do anything. A friend of mine coming home on another bus had a piece of metal go up her pants leg. She ended up with 70 stitches, and it didn't even tear her pants. Another kid died. That bus ended up hanging from the trees.

"The April 3-4, 1974 Super Outbreak affected 13 states across the eastern United States, from the Great Lakes region all the way to the Deep South. In all, 148 tornadoes were documented from this event, of which 95 were rated F2 or stronger on the Fujita scale and 30 were F4 or F5. Aside from all the castastrophic damage they left behind, the tornadoes resulted in 335 deaths and more than 6000 injuries.

Some of the strongest tornadoes from this outbreak occurred right here in the Ohio Valley. Dozens of tornadoes struck Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, resulting in 159 deaths, over 4000 injuries, and hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage. Two violent F5 tornadoes destroyed much of Xenia and Sayler Park (a western suburb of Cincinnati) in Ohio. Resulting in 34 deaths, the Xenia tornado was the deadliest of all tornadoes from this outbreak and remains among the top 10 costliest U.S. tornadoes on record (approximately $250 million in 1974). Several other strong F2 to F4 tornadoes also touched down during the Super Outbreak across southeast Indiana, northern Kentucky, and southwest Ohio, an area that today encompasses NWS Wilmington, Ohio's warning area."

https://www.weather.gov/iln/19740403

[Duppers]

5. 😱 OhMyGoodness!!

How incredibly scary!