Weekly Weather Event -Week of April 13
April 17, 2020Easter Sunday (April 12th) into April 13th saw an outbreak of tornadoes in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee. National Weather Service damage reports have confirmed at least 127 tornados touched down from the storm. The outbreak left more than 1 million homes and businesses without power and killed at least 37 people.
Mississippi saw some of the strongest tornadoes from the outbreak, including a tornado 2.25 miles wide wide that traveled 68 miles and crossed through parts of five different counties. It also broke Mississippi’s record for tornado width, with the former record being set on April 24th, 2010 by an EF4 tornado 1.75 miles wide. This also makes the Mississippi Easter tornado the third widest tornado on U.S. record, beaten out only by the El Reno, Oklahoma tornado on May 31, 20013 (2.6 miles wide) and the Hallam, Nebraska tornado on May 22, 2014 (2.5 miles wide). The Mississippi Easter tornado has a preliminary rating of EF4.
All information presented in this article is preliminary and may change as new information as considered.