Great outbreak
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Super Outbreak (1974)
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| Duration | April 3, 1974-4. April 1974, 18 hours |
| Number of tornadoes | 148, including 7 F5 tornadoes |
| Total damage | an estimated $ 3.5 billion |
| Total sacrifice | 315–330 dead, 5,484 injured |
The Super Outbreak , also known as the Jumbo Outbreak , was the largest series of tornadoes recorded until the record outbreak in April 2011. From April 3 to April 4, 1974, a total of 148 tornadoes hit 13 states: Illinois , Indiana , Michigan , Ohio , Kentucky , Tennessee , Alabama , Mississippi , Georgia , North Carolina , Virginia , West Virginia and New York . A tornado was also nearWindsor , Ontario , registered in Canada - the only one outside the US . At the same time, this series holds the record for the number of most tornadoes of the F4 and F5 levels in the Fujita scale : seven F5 tornadoes and 23 F4 tornadoes were registered.
course
The series began in Morris , Illinois , at about 1 p.m. on April 3, 1974. As the eastward migration progressed, the storms grew stronger. A tornado near Monticello , Indiana , was already classified as an F4 tornado and moved a distance of 121 miles (195 km), killing 19 people in the process. The first F5 tornado started in Xenia , Ohio , killing 33 and injuring 1,150 others. A quarter of the city was completely destroyed by him, another quarter was badly damaged. At the height of the series, 15 individual tornadoes existed simultaneously.
During a period of 18 hours there were continuous tornadoes and the series ended in the early morning of April 4, 1974. A total of 315 to 330 people were killed by 148 tornadoes during this period and 5,484 were injured.
root cause
The Super Outbreak emerged as a result of the very strong La Niña year 1973/74 and is similar to a tornado series in March 2006. Although this connection is known for at least two series, there is no general scientific evidence for this connection between La Niña and the Creation of larger series of tornadoes.
Strength of the Super Outbreak on the Fujita scale
| Confirmed totally |
Confirms F0 |
Confirmed F1 |
Confirms F2 |
Confirms F3 |
Confirms F4 |
Confirms F5 |
| 148 | 15th | 37 | 31 | 35 | 23 | 7th |
literature
- Jacqueline A. Ball (Ed.): Tornado! the 1974 super outbreak , Bearport Pub., 2005. 32 pages. ISBN 1597160091 (lib. Bdg), ISBN 1-5971-6032-6 (paperback).
- Barbara Lynn Riedel: Tornado at Xenia, April 3, 1974 , Cleveland, OH, 1974. Library of Congress Control Number: 75314665.
- Polk Laffoon IV: Tornado , New York: Harper & Row, 1975. ISBN 006012489X .
- Howard B. Bluestein: Tornado alley: monster storms of the Great Plains , New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0195105524 .
- Robert E. Deitz: April 3, 1974: tornado! , Louisville, Ky: Courier-Journal, 1974. Library of Congress Control Number: 74080806.
- Verta A. Taylor: Delivery of mental health services in disasters: the Xenia tornado and some implications , Columbus, OH: Disaster Research Center, Ohio State University, 1976. Library of Congress Control Number: 76380740.
- The widespread tornado outbreak of April 3-4, 1974: a report to the Administrator . Rockville, Md: US Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1974. Library of Congress Control Number: 75601597.
Web links
- Detailed site of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (English)
- Satellite images of the National Climatic Data Center (English)
- Conference paper of the 22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society (English)
- Detailed private page ( Memento from July 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- The Weather Channel's Storm of the Century list - # 2 The Super Outbreak ( Memento from February 4, 2003 in the Internet Archive )