Early April Tornado Outbreak Spawned EF3s in Five States: 110 Twisters Confirmed In South, Midwest
An outbreak of severe thunderstorms spawned over 100 tornadoes in 14 states over several days from the South into the Midwest in early April.
The National Weather Service confirmed 110 tornadoes occurred in a six-day period from April 2-7. Over 60% of those (69) did so from Wednesday into early Thursday morning, April 2-3.
Indiana led the way with 18 tornadoes, followed by Illinois with 16, Mississippi with 13 and Tennessee with 11.
Damage surveys will continue for the next several days so that tornado the tally will go higher.
In addition to the tornadoes, there were over 830 reports of large hail, severe thunderstorm wind gusts and damage over those six days. .
Over a 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m. EDT April 3, the National Weather Service issued 728 severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings combined, third most of any 24-hour period since 1986, according to the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.
Of those, 32 were categorized as "strong" tornadoes, those that produced at least EF2 damage on the Enhanced Fujita scale from which tornadoes are rated and peak winds are estimated.
April 2-3
In southeast Missouri, an EF3 tornado damaged or destroyed homes near the town of Latty, about 55 miles southwest of St. Louis during the April 2 outbreak.
That evening, another EF3 tornado demolished homes in Lake City and Monette, Arkansas, about 50 miles north-northwest of Memphis.
And just after midnight, an EF3 tornado embedded in a line of severe thunderstorms carved a 10-mile-long path through the eastern side of the Louisville, Kentucky, metro area. Since 1950, the only other tornado to receive that high a rating in Jefferson County was an F4 during the April 3, 1974, Super Outbreak.
Two other EF3 tornadoes struck after midnight in Selmer, Tennessee, and from Slayden, Mississippi, to Grand Junction, Tennessee. The latter tornado killed one when a mobile home was destroyed. It went on to damage numerous homes in Grand Junction, including City Hall.
One of the longest tracks of this outbreak was a 49-mile-long tornado rated EF2 from extreme southeast Illinois to just north of Terre Haute, Indiana.
April 3-7
Over the following five days, multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms and flooding rain hammered parts of the South and Midwest.
Eight of the tornadoes during that stretch were rated EF2.
Five of those were in Mississippi on April 6, including one near the town of Stringer which "launched" and "destroyed" a mobile home onto two nearby vehicles, killing one person inside the mobile home.
Other EF2 tornadoes in this stretch included a pair of Texas twisters on April 4 in Morris and Red River Counties, and an April 5 tornado in Cross County, Arkansas.
Staff at the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, was forced to take cover on the evening of April 2 as a tornado later rated EF2 just missed the office.
An EF1 tornado sliced through Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on April 2. Fortunately, damage to trees, homes and businesses was considered minor by the National Weather Service on its track through the city's downtown, then across the Mississippi River.
In the northwest Indianapolis suburb of Brownsburg, a tornado tracked through parts of the city's downtown, with mainly scattered, minor damage. But it injured one person when a warehouse wall caved in.
Finally, an EF1 tornado in Branch County, Michigan, was a bit tougher for National Weather Service staff to survey. That's because less than 48 hours after the tornado, affected residents of an Amish community had already repaired the damage, as senior meteorologist Chris Dolce explained.
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
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