#super outbreak

[mulberrybite]

helping and find some sources for a thing a few days ago digging around in the post cold war era us history overview wikipedia page looking at the main historical events drop-down menus for the three sub-periods and who did i find there but the ghost of the 2011 super outbreak that continues to haunt me wherever i go?

[nickkahler]

Map of the Superoutbreak Tornadoes, 1974

[americana-plus]

On this day, April 3rd and 4th, 1974 a super outbreak of tornadoes occurred. It was the most violent tornado outbreak ever recorded. 148 tornadoes were confirmed in 13 US States with 30 F4/F5 tornadoes recorded. The F5 tornado pictured above struck Xenia, OH at 4:40pm on April 3rd. The path of the tornado was over a 1/2 mile wide. It was the deadliest tornado of the outbreak killing 32 people and destroying a significant portion of the town.

[depressinghistory]

April 3, 1974: Tornadoes kill 319 in "Super Outbreak"

On April 3, 1974, a "Super Outbreak" of tornadoes struck the United States and Canada, causing extensive damage over an 18-hour period and killing 319 people. At the time it was the largest tornado outbreak for a 24-hour period in history. In a span of eighteen hours between April 3 and April 4, 148 tornadoes were sighted in thirteen U.S. states and one Canadian province. Severe weather watches were set in place throughout the region earlier that day, and St. Louis was pummeled with hailstones the size of baseball. In the afternoon a system of tornadoes began to develop in Illinois and the Appalachians, later shifting to the Ohio Valley. Particularly hard-hit were the Kentucky cities of Brandenburg and Louisville; the Ohio cities of Cincinatti and Xenia; Windsor, Ontario; and the states of Indiana and Alabama. In addition to the 319 killed, over 5,000 were injured.

[fuckyeahweather]

[eclecticmuses]

A terrifying video of the Tuscaloosa tornado. Holy shit.

Side note: Sorry for spamming all of my followers with tornado spam today. The weather events that took place across Alabama today has been a major disaster for my home state and even though I haven't been directly affected I feel very strongly about it. The death toll in Alabama alone is 64 and rising; entire communities have been wiped off the map. It's comparable to the Super Outbreak of 1974 and President Obama has declared a state of emergency. So if you have a moment, please pray or spare a thought or whatever it is you do for times like these, for the people who've been affected by these storms. It's a nightmare across North and Central Alabama right now.

I promise to return to your regularly scheduled Rory/Arthur programming soon.

[eclecticmuses]

News footage of storm damage near Eclectic in Elmore County, Alabama on April 27, 2011. This storm passed less than a mile from my home.

Three people confirmed dead, seven injured.

[eclecticmuses]

Video of the lightning storm outside my house in Elmore County, Alabama shortly before an unconfirmed tornado passed by about a mile away.