(Source: NOAA) |
A deadly tornado outbreak earlier this month on March 3 claimed 23 lives in Beauregard, Alabama.
Another deadly March severe weather outbreak in the United States was in
2012. There were over 130 tornadoes on
March 2, 2012 as part of an outbreak that produced nearly 700 total cases of
severe weather (hail 1”/+ in diameter, wind gusts of at least 58 mph or a
tornado). This severe weather outbreak
covered an unusually large geographic area from Texas to West Virginia. The deadliest tornado during this outbreak
was on the ground for 34 miles in Kentucky where eight lives were lost.
The “Atlanta Outbreak” occurred on March 15, 2008 and
a total of 51 tornadoes developed. These
tornadoes caused one fatality and 19 injuries.
Tornadoes can strike urban and suburban areas just as easily as rural
ones. Over just the last two decades, there
have been tornadoes in major urban areas such as Nashville, Salt Lake City,
Atlanta, Chicago and even Los Angeles.
A total of 20 fatalities were reported in a March 1, 2007 severe weather outbreak that spanned from Illinois to Florida. Nearly six dozen tornadoes occurred during
this event. Meanwhile, a year earlier
another significant severe weather outbreak occurred on March 12, 2006. Of the nearly 700 severe weather reports, 140
of them were tornadoes that were concentrated in Missouri and Illinois. These tornadoes claimed four lives and caused
90 injuries.
The “Tri-State Tornado” as it was dubbed occurred on
March 18, 1925. It had a long track
across parts of Illinois, Missouri and Indiana.
At one point, this tornado was estimated to have attained F5 intensity
on the Fujita Scale with wind speeds of greater than 300 mph. It leveled everything in its path and became
the deadliest tornado on record with 695 fatalities. According to the National Weather Service,
this tornado was on the ground for three and a half hours and destroyed 15,000
homes.
Severe weather is more common along the U.S. Gulf
Coast in March. That’s because the
weather in March tends to be warmer and more humid the farther south and east
you travel. Later in the spring as the
continental United States sees milder temperatures, severe weather becomes more
common over a larger geographic area.
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