the only thing worse than one tornado is
a pack of them welcome to watchmojo.com
and today we’re counting down our picks
for the top 10 deadliest American
tornado outbreaks of the past 100 years
as I was going around the corner to go
down the basement the corner of the
kitchen was coming apart for this list
we’ve chosen tornado outbreaks that have
claimed the most lives Brandenburg was
all but wiped out 31 people lost their
lives outbreaks are defined as a series
of tornadoes that derived from the same
storm system and a storm system can last
anywhere from a few hours to over a week
as said in the title these particular
outbreaks occurred in the US during the
past 100 years and are ranked by death
toll quite frankly we really don’t know
how many people died that night but
newspaper accounts let us know that at
least 268 people lost their lives number
10 the April 19-20 outbreak at least 17
tornadoes tore through the southeastern
United States during mid April 19-20 the
outbreak lasted 50 hours and affected
several states but Alabama Mississippi
and Tennessee were hit the hardest
many of the tornadoes were ranked as
f-4s on the 5 pillared Fujita scale a
system created to measure tornado
intensity and one of them was a near f5
that killed 88 people all by itself it’s
a twister
digit
bridges were wrecked barns schools and
churches were crushed and rooms were
torn from homes in total 243 people died
nearly 1400 were injured whole
communities were obliterated and damage
was likely in the millions of dollars
number nine the Flint Wurster outbreak
sequence scientist warned that this new
system was not foolproof the hook-shaped
deco did not always appear on their
screens a lesson the city of Flint
Michigan was about to learn Flint
Michigan and Worcester Massachusetts
were devastated by tornadoes from an
outbreak that affected much of the
northeastern US and the city with its
more than 200,000 people and surrounding
Worcester County for ending a normal day
it was late afternoon but up in the
North County a tragedy was brewing
starting as far west as Colorado this
band of tornadoes ripped through
hundreds of miles of prairie landscape
before arriving at the heavily populated
East Coast all of a sudden it was
panicking me I was scared because these
areas fall outside what’s normally
considered Tornado Alley some believed
atomic bomb testing caused this storm
system however meteorologists quickly
debunked this when the tornado struck
into Worcester it roared through one of
the city’s most populated areas great
Brook Valley Gardens and Curtis
apartments
one of the 46 confirmed tornadoes was an
f5 that affected Flint and surrounding
townships flattening buildings with ease
and killing 116 people while an f4 hit
Wurster and killed 90 these apocalyptic
conditions lasted three days caused over
245 total deaths and if adjusted for
inflation three billion dollars in
damage never had the area seen so many
workmen doing so many jobs so fast
number eight the 1965 Palm Sunday
outbreak well–there’s where started and
then see it grew it got bigger as it
came toward us across hundreds filled
the Sunday before Easter is referred to
by Christians as Palm
Sunday and that’s the religious day that
gave this deadly tornado outbreak its
name
immediately after the twisters had
passed leaving behind their trail of
death and destruction State Troopers
local police and civil defense units
firemen and volunteer workers swarmed
over the wreckage of what were once
homes apartments Christians in the
Midwest went to church that day with no
storms in the forecast but by the time
it was over this storm system had
destroyed tons of property including
churches themselves and this guy looked
terrible and that’s when we had the
tornado came through in just one day
forty-seven tornadoes materialized in
several Midwest states with 17 of them
landing in the f-4 range
they claimed around 270 lives 137 in
Indiana alone which is the deadliest
outbreak in the state’s history all I
could think it was with me the only ones
alive because I had seen all of us and
there was nobody out of their house over
1500 people were injured across Iowa
Indiana Michigan Ohio Illinois and
Wisconsin and the damage done would be
worth six billion dollars today 50 years
later the sights and the sounds are
still vivid for those who survived
number seven the 1974 Super Outbreak it
was just a big roar and I I don’t know
it was just terrible in terms of scale
the Super Outbreak of 1974 is the second
largest in recorded history be ready
tomorrow maybe the biggest outbreak that
we’ve had in an 18 hour period 148
tornadoes affected 13 states from
Mississippi to New York in an
unprecedented force of nature
twenty-three of the tornadoes were f-4s
in seven were f5 s equaling 30 violent
tornadoes which is a record for a single
outbreak Oh City Hall and howdy
courthouse are wrecked and there is no
emergency operating center equipped to
deal with this kind of crisis 2600 miles
were hit 900 square miles of land and
buildings damaged with costs of over six
hundred million dollars in nineteen
seven
for currency all told 319 people died
and nearly 5,500 were injured it just
looked like a black snake in the sky
just looks like a huge black snake
number six the 2011 Super Outbreak this
is a tornado emergency take cover
immediately April 1974 hosted the second
largest outbreak but it was April 2011
that saw the largest ever recorded an
inconceivable 362 tornadoes spread
throughout 21 states over three days
three hundred and sixty three if you
count the one that touched down in
Ontario all told it was about a 51 hour
period here from the 26 to the 28 where
there were nearly continuous tornadoes
regions from Texas to New York or hit
with torrential winds hail and rain
along with 11 F 4 and 4 f5 rated
tornadoes although Alabama and
Mississippi were hardest hit the
destruction was in some cases total and
complete the cost of this atmospheric
wrecking ball was 11 billion dollars an
unparalleled amount for a tornado
outbreak the fallout did not end with
uprooted trees however as 324 people
were killed 317 of those in one day and
252 people in Alabama alone are
tornadoes like this are very rare and on
this day they were all all too common
number 5 the 1932 Deep South outbreak
most of you watching weren’t even around
at that time
but that day will always be a part of
Alabama weather history it seems that
Alabama is a tornado magnet while this
13 hour outbreak affected nearly all of
the southern states Alabama was the
worst hit as usual 268 of the roughly
330 fatalities occurred in Alabama due
to eight f4 scale tornadoes in the state
about 6:30 he heard a big loud noise he
wouldn’t open the door and the guy said
my god is a cyclone there were 10
violent tornadoes in total as part of a
larger group of 36 and they ravaged
cities and towns of the entire southeast
portion of the United State
spreading from Mississippi to Illinois
to South Carolina over 2000 injuries
were reported after the outbreak along
with 5 million dollars in damage and
that’s in 1932 currency one person whose
witnesses said that from their home they
could see our house go up about 50 feet
there and it exploded like dynamite
number 4 the 1920 Palm Sunday outbreak
yep you heard that right two of the most
devastating tornado outbreaks occurred
on Palm Sunday with the 1920 event being
the deadliest there were 37 tornadoes in
total and they wreaked havoc on an area
larger than Germany tearing down
churches and surprising farmers it’s
estimated that around 380 people were
killed in several states with Indiana
Georgia and Ohio receiving the brunt of
the wrath however some historians
theorize that the loss of life was
actually far greater as records for the
deaths of non-white citizens were not
kept at that time along with the
incredible loss of life over 1200 people
were injured by the funnel clouds and
their projectile debris yeah it was
frightening also we were afraid we
didn’t know what would happen to our
house and to our parents number three
the may June 1917 outbreak as you can
deduce by the title this wasn’t a single
day event the 1917 tornado outbreak
lasted an unbelievable eight days and
massacred many states in the Midwest and
southeastern United States
from Nebraska to Texas to Alabama this
family of tornadoes traveled toppling
significant towns and farming
communities old-growth trees were
plentiful they’re destroyed mangled
uprooted all these beautiful trees and
destroyed every building that was on the
whole fairgrounds property of the 73
tornadoes 15 were considered violent
including an f5 that struck southern
Kansas and demolished over 100 buildings
383 people were reported dead after the
chaos ended and the resulting damage was
in the hundreds of millions of dollars
if adjusted for inflation
number two the 1936 Tupelo Gainesville
outbreak
Edith Gerner doesn’t have to imagine it
she lived through it the outbreak only
consisted of a seemingly paltry 12
tornadoes but this disaster claimed more
lives than nearly all the other entries
on our list there were fatalities in six
different states but Mississippi and
Georgia had over 90% of the death toll a
single tornado attacked Tupelo
Mississippi on April 5th and killed at
least 216 people while another tornado
hit Gainesville Georgia on April 6 and
left over two hundred and three people
dead then came the gruesome task of
collecting the dead the storm had
deposited people and debris in a shallow
pond north of the city in only 16 hours
the tornadoes killed four hundred and
fifty-four people injured 2,500 and
became the only continuous tornado
outbreak in the history of the US to
yield more than one tornado with
fatalities in the triple digits at that
time there were no televisions in Tupelo
and no warning system in place can you
imagine going on a first date and a
being in the middle of a tornado before
we unveil our number one pick here are
some honorable mentions we heard this
roaring and they asked us if we wanted
to see a tornado and they LeMay thought
I would go and sleep even when I was
putting blankets and pillows in the
bathroom I didn’t take it seriously I
just thought this is what I grew up
doing you know this is what my mom did
every time there was a warning so I
might as well do it too I have to
protect my daughter just in case
number one the tri-state tornado the
next thing I recall I was in the cold
been buried in coal the great tri-state
tornado outbreak occurred on Wednesday
March 8th 1925 and greatly affected
Missouri Illinois and Indiana
despite lasting only seven hours and
consisting of just 12 tornadoes this
outbreak is the deadliest in the history
of the United States over seven hundred
and forty-seven people were killed with
695 of those from a single tornado that
traveled 235 miles and destroyed some 13
counties and 19 communities across the
three affected states farm after farm
was just swept away people didn’t know
what was coming it was a huge black mass
undisputedly it has since earned an f5
rating from most experts as it was the
deadliest individual tornado in American
history all in all the outbreak caused
over 2 billion dollars in damage if
adjusted for inflation and left around
2300 people injured but very few farm
owners have been killed
they are extremely weather wise people
great observers they had no idea what
they were facing do you agree with our
list which tornado statistics shocked
you the most I could feel the house
sliding off the foundation for more
turbulent top 10s published every day be
sure to subscribe to watchmojo.com
Tupelo City Hall was converted into a
morgue an amplifier was stuck in a
second-story window
broadcasting pleas from families seeking
lost ones
many would never be reunited
you
a pack of them welcome to watchmojo.com
and today we’re counting down our picks
for the top 10 deadliest American
tornado outbreaks of the past 100 years
as I was going around the corner to go
down the basement the corner of the
kitchen was coming apart for this list
we’ve chosen tornado outbreaks that have
claimed the most lives Brandenburg was
all but wiped out 31 people lost their
lives outbreaks are defined as a series
of tornadoes that derived from the same
storm system and a storm system can last
anywhere from a few hours to over a week
as said in the title these particular
outbreaks occurred in the US during the
past 100 years and are ranked by death
toll quite frankly we really don’t know
how many people died that night but
newspaper accounts let us know that at
least 268 people lost their lives number
10 the April 19-20 outbreak at least 17
tornadoes tore through the southeastern
United States during mid April 19-20 the
outbreak lasted 50 hours and affected
several states but Alabama Mississippi
and Tennessee were hit the hardest
many of the tornadoes were ranked as
f-4s on the 5 pillared Fujita scale a
system created to measure tornado
intensity and one of them was a near f5
that killed 88 people all by itself it’s
a twister
digit
bridges were wrecked barns schools and
churches were crushed and rooms were
torn from homes in total 243 people died
nearly 1400 were injured whole
communities were obliterated and damage
was likely in the millions of dollars
number nine the Flint Wurster outbreak
sequence scientist warned that this new
system was not foolproof the hook-shaped
deco did not always appear on their
screens a lesson the city of Flint
Michigan was about to learn Flint
Michigan and Worcester Massachusetts
were devastated by tornadoes from an
outbreak that affected much of the
northeastern US and the city with its
more than 200,000 people and surrounding
Worcester County for ending a normal day
it was late afternoon but up in the
North County a tragedy was brewing
starting as far west as Colorado this
band of tornadoes ripped through
hundreds of miles of prairie landscape
before arriving at the heavily populated
East Coast all of a sudden it was
panicking me I was scared because these
areas fall outside what’s normally
considered Tornado Alley some believed
atomic bomb testing caused this storm
system however meteorologists quickly
debunked this when the tornado struck
into Worcester it roared through one of
the city’s most populated areas great
Brook Valley Gardens and Curtis
apartments
one of the 46 confirmed tornadoes was an
f5 that affected Flint and surrounding
townships flattening buildings with ease
and killing 116 people while an f4 hit
Wurster and killed 90 these apocalyptic
conditions lasted three days caused over
245 total deaths and if adjusted for
inflation three billion dollars in
damage never had the area seen so many
workmen doing so many jobs so fast
number eight the 1965 Palm Sunday
outbreak well–there’s where started and
then see it grew it got bigger as it
came toward us across hundreds filled
the Sunday before Easter is referred to
by Christians as Palm
Sunday and that’s the religious day that
gave this deadly tornado outbreak its
name
immediately after the twisters had
passed leaving behind their trail of
death and destruction State Troopers
local police and civil defense units
firemen and volunteer workers swarmed
over the wreckage of what were once
homes apartments Christians in the
Midwest went to church that day with no
storms in the forecast but by the time
it was over this storm system had
destroyed tons of property including
churches themselves and this guy looked
terrible and that’s when we had the
tornado came through in just one day
forty-seven tornadoes materialized in
several Midwest states with 17 of them
landing in the f-4 range
they claimed around 270 lives 137 in
Indiana alone which is the deadliest
outbreak in the state’s history all I
could think it was with me the only ones
alive because I had seen all of us and
there was nobody out of their house over
1500 people were injured across Iowa
Indiana Michigan Ohio Illinois and
Wisconsin and the damage done would be
worth six billion dollars today 50 years
later the sights and the sounds are
still vivid for those who survived
number seven the 1974 Super Outbreak it
was just a big roar and I I don’t know
it was just terrible in terms of scale
the Super Outbreak of 1974 is the second
largest in recorded history be ready
tomorrow maybe the biggest outbreak that
we’ve had in an 18 hour period 148
tornadoes affected 13 states from
Mississippi to New York in an
unprecedented force of nature
twenty-three of the tornadoes were f-4s
in seven were f5 s equaling 30 violent
tornadoes which is a record for a single
outbreak Oh City Hall and howdy
courthouse are wrecked and there is no
emergency operating center equipped to
deal with this kind of crisis 2600 miles
were hit 900 square miles of land and
buildings damaged with costs of over six
hundred million dollars in nineteen
seven
for currency all told 319 people died
and nearly 5,500 were injured it just
looked like a black snake in the sky
just looks like a huge black snake
number six the 2011 Super Outbreak this
is a tornado emergency take cover
immediately April 1974 hosted the second
largest outbreak but it was April 2011
that saw the largest ever recorded an
inconceivable 362 tornadoes spread
throughout 21 states over three days
three hundred and sixty three if you
count the one that touched down in
Ontario all told it was about a 51 hour
period here from the 26 to the 28 where
there were nearly continuous tornadoes
regions from Texas to New York or hit
with torrential winds hail and rain
along with 11 F 4 and 4 f5 rated
tornadoes although Alabama and
Mississippi were hardest hit the
destruction was in some cases total and
complete the cost of this atmospheric
wrecking ball was 11 billion dollars an
unparalleled amount for a tornado
outbreak the fallout did not end with
uprooted trees however as 324 people
were killed 317 of those in one day and
252 people in Alabama alone are
tornadoes like this are very rare and on
this day they were all all too common
number 5 the 1932 Deep South outbreak
most of you watching weren’t even around
at that time
but that day will always be a part of
Alabama weather history it seems that
Alabama is a tornado magnet while this
13 hour outbreak affected nearly all of
the southern states Alabama was the
worst hit as usual 268 of the roughly
330 fatalities occurred in Alabama due
to eight f4 scale tornadoes in the state
about 6:30 he heard a big loud noise he
wouldn’t open the door and the guy said
my god is a cyclone there were 10
violent tornadoes in total as part of a
larger group of 36 and they ravaged
cities and towns of the entire southeast
portion of the United State
spreading from Mississippi to Illinois
to South Carolina over 2000 injuries
were reported after the outbreak along
with 5 million dollars in damage and
that’s in 1932 currency one person whose
witnesses said that from their home they
could see our house go up about 50 feet
there and it exploded like dynamite
number 4 the 1920 Palm Sunday outbreak
yep you heard that right two of the most
devastating tornado outbreaks occurred
on Palm Sunday with the 1920 event being
the deadliest there were 37 tornadoes in
total and they wreaked havoc on an area
larger than Germany tearing down
churches and surprising farmers it’s
estimated that around 380 people were
killed in several states with Indiana
Georgia and Ohio receiving the brunt of
the wrath however some historians
theorize that the loss of life was
actually far greater as records for the
deaths of non-white citizens were not
kept at that time along with the
incredible loss of life over 1200 people
were injured by the funnel clouds and
their projectile debris yeah it was
frightening also we were afraid we
didn’t know what would happen to our
house and to our parents number three
the may June 1917 outbreak as you can
deduce by the title this wasn’t a single
day event the 1917 tornado outbreak
lasted an unbelievable eight days and
massacred many states in the Midwest and
southeastern United States
from Nebraska to Texas to Alabama this
family of tornadoes traveled toppling
significant towns and farming
communities old-growth trees were
plentiful they’re destroyed mangled
uprooted all these beautiful trees and
destroyed every building that was on the
whole fairgrounds property of the 73
tornadoes 15 were considered violent
including an f5 that struck southern
Kansas and demolished over 100 buildings
383 people were reported dead after the
chaos ended and the resulting damage was
in the hundreds of millions of dollars
if adjusted for inflation
number two the 1936 Tupelo Gainesville
outbreak
Edith Gerner doesn’t have to imagine it
she lived through it the outbreak only
consisted of a seemingly paltry 12
tornadoes but this disaster claimed more
lives than nearly all the other entries
on our list there were fatalities in six
different states but Mississippi and
Georgia had over 90% of the death toll a
single tornado attacked Tupelo
Mississippi on April 5th and killed at
least 216 people while another tornado
hit Gainesville Georgia on April 6 and
left over two hundred and three people
dead then came the gruesome task of
collecting the dead the storm had
deposited people and debris in a shallow
pond north of the city in only 16 hours
the tornadoes killed four hundred and
fifty-four people injured 2,500 and
became the only continuous tornado
outbreak in the history of the US to
yield more than one tornado with
fatalities in the triple digits at that
time there were no televisions in Tupelo
and no warning system in place can you
imagine going on a first date and a
being in the middle of a tornado before
we unveil our number one pick here are
some honorable mentions we heard this
roaring and they asked us if we wanted
to see a tornado and they LeMay thought
I would go and sleep even when I was
putting blankets and pillows in the
bathroom I didn’t take it seriously I
just thought this is what I grew up
doing you know this is what my mom did
every time there was a warning so I
might as well do it too I have to
protect my daughter just in case
number one the tri-state tornado the
next thing I recall I was in the cold
been buried in coal the great tri-state
tornado outbreak occurred on Wednesday
March 8th 1925 and greatly affected
Missouri Illinois and Indiana
despite lasting only seven hours and
consisting of just 12 tornadoes this
outbreak is the deadliest in the history
of the United States over seven hundred
and forty-seven people were killed with
695 of those from a single tornado that
traveled 235 miles and destroyed some 13
counties and 19 communities across the
three affected states farm after farm
was just swept away people didn’t know
what was coming it was a huge black mass
undisputedly it has since earned an f5
rating from most experts as it was the
deadliest individual tornado in American
history all in all the outbreak caused
over 2 billion dollars in damage if
adjusted for inflation and left around
2300 people injured but very few farm
owners have been killed
they are extremely weather wise people
great observers they had no idea what
they were facing do you agree with our
list which tornado statistics shocked
you the most I could feel the house
sliding off the foundation for more
turbulent top 10s published every day be
sure to subscribe to watchmojo.com
Tupelo City Hall was converted into a
morgue an amplifier was stuck in a
second-story window
broadcasting pleas from families seeking
lost ones
many would never be reunited
you
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