Super Outbreak
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The Super Outbreak (sometimes called Jumbo Outbreak) is the largest tornado outbreak on record. On April 3–4, 1974, there were 148 tornadoes confirmed in 13 states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and New York. One tornado also occurred in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, killing nine and injuring 30 others there. It is believed such an outbreak of this magnitude occurs once every 500 years, according to a 2004 special report of the 30th anniversary of the outbreak on WHAS-TV in Louisville.
Events and aftermath
This outbreak also broke the record for the most violent (F5 and F4) tornadoes. There were six F5 tornadoes and 24 F4 tornadoes. The outbreak began in Morris, Illinois, at around 1 p.m. on April 3, 1974. As the storm system moved east where it had been sunny all day, the tornadoes became more severe. A tornado that hit near Monticello, Indiana, was an F4 and had a path length of 121 miles, the longest path length of any tornado for this outbreak. Nineteen people were killed in this tornado. The first F5 tornado of the day hit in Xenia, Ohio at 4:40 in the afternoon. It killed 32, injured 1,150, completely destroyed about one-fourth of the city, and caused serious damage in another fourth of the city.Five more F5s would go on to hit—one in Indiana, one more in Ohio, one in Kentucky, and two in Alabama. Twenty-eight were killed in Brandenburg, Kentucky, and 30 were killed in Guin, Alabama. The lowest number killed by an F5 tornado in this outbreak was six in Hanover, Indiana. During the peak of the outbreak, a staggering fifteen tornadoes were on the ground simultaneously.
There were 18 hours of continuous tornadic activity. The outbreak finally ended at about 7:00 A.M. on April 4, 1974. A total of 315-330 people were killed in 49 tornadoes and 5,484 were injured.
The Super Outbreak occurred at the end of a very strong, nearly record-setting La Niña event. The 1973–74 La Niña was just as strong as the 1998–99 La Niña. Another tornado outbreak, which may be linked to La Niña, was the March 12, 2006 tornado outbreak. Despite the apparent connection between La Niña and two of the largest tornado outbreaks in US history, no definitive linkage exists between La Niña and this outbreak or tornado activity in general.
Some tornado myths were soundly debunked (not necessarily for the first time) by tornado activity during the outbreak.#redirect [[Template:Fact]]
- Table of confirmed tornadoes - after surveys by local weather service offices
| Confirmed Total | Confirmed F0 | Confirmed F1 | Confirmed F2 | Confirmed F3 | Confirmed F4 | Confirmed F5 |
| bgcolor=# align="center" |148 | bgcolor=# align="center" |23 | bgcolor=# align="center" |31 | bgcolor=# align="center" |30 | bgcolor=# align="center" |35 | bgcolor=# align="center" |24 | bgcolor=# align="center" |6 |
See also
Related Movies
Gummo (1997)Books about
- Tornado! the 1974 super outbreak, by Jacqueline A. Ball; consultant, Daniel H. Franck. New York: Bearport Pub., 2005. 32 pages. ISBN 1597160091 (lib. bdg), 1597160326 (paperback).
- Tornado at Xenia, April 3, 1974, by Barbara Lynn Riedel; photography by Peter Wayne Kyryl. Cleveland, OH, 1974. 95 pages. No ISBN number is available. Library of Congress Control Number: 75314665.
- Tornado, by Polk Laffoon IV. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. 244 pages. ISBN 006012489X.
- Tornado alley: monster storms of the Great Plains, by Howard B. Bluestein. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 180 pages. ISBN 0195105524 (acid-free paper).
- April 3, 1974: tornado! book edited by Robert E. Deitz, introduction by John Ed Pearce. Louisville, Ky: Courier-Journal, 1974. 128 pages. There is no ISBN number available. Library of Congress Control Number: 74080806.
- Delivery of mental health services in disasters: the Xenia tornado and some implications, by Verta A. Taylor, with G. Alexander Ross and E. L. Quarantelli. Columbus, OH: Disaster Research Center, Ohio State University, 1976. 328 pages. There is no ISBN number available. Library of Congress Control Number: 76380740.
- The widespread tornado outbreak of April 3-4, 1974: a report to the Administrator. Rockville, Md: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1974. 42 pages. There is no ISBN number available. Library of Congress Control Number: 75601597.
- The tornado, by John Edward Weems. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977. 180 pages. ISBN 0385071787.
External links
- [1974 Windsor Tornado - CBC Archives]
- [NOAA and the 1974 Tornado Outbreak]
- [Super Tornado Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974] (National Climatic Data Center)
- [April 3, 1974 Superoutbreak] (NWS Indianapolis, IN)
- [Super Outbreak of April 3rd 1974] (NWS Northern Indiana)
- [The April 3rd and 4th 1974 Tornado Outbreak in Alabama] (NWS Birmingham, AL)
- [The Super Outbreak: Outbreak of the Century] (22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society)
- [Potential insurance losses from a major tornado outbreak: the 1974 Super Outbreak example] (22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society)
- [A website dedicated to the Super Outbreak]
- [The Weather Channel's Storm of the Century list - #2 The Super Outbreak]
- [Super Outbreak 30th Anniversary Special (WHAS Louisville)]
- [WHAS April 3, 1974 Live Breaking News Coverage part 1]
- [WHAS April 3, 1974 Live Breaking News Coverage part 2]
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