What were the deadliest U.S. tornado days?
On 3 April 1974, the main day of the two-day “Super Outbreak,” tornadoes killed 308 people. We have two lists of the top 15 deadliest tornado days since 1950, one from midnight to midnight CST (by calendar day, Central Standard Time), then from 12 UTC to 12 UTC (the “convective day” for SPC outlooks). Because some tornado outbreaks persist well into the night and following morning, one can slice and dice the time sampling in many ways, and come up with different numbers. These are the two most common measures of a “day” that SPC has used, historically.
On 3 April 1974, the main day of the two-day “Super Outbreak,” tornadoes killed 308 people. We have two lists of the top 15 deadliest tornado days since 1950, one from midnight to midnight CST (by calendar day, Central Standard Time), then from 12 UTC to 12 UTC (the “convective day” for SPC outlooks). Because some tornado outbreaks persist well into the night and following morning, one can slice and dice the time sampling in many ways, and come up with different numbers.
