April 2011 Tornadoes Break Record For Most Twisters Ever In A Day

WASHINGTON -- Preliminary government estimates say there were more tornadoes in a single day last week than any other day in history.

Government analysts say there were 312 tornadoes during last week's outbreak, including a record-setting 226 in one day.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the largest previous number on record in one event occurred from April 3-4, 1974, with 148 tornadoes.

NOAA says 334 people were killed during the 24-hour-period from 8:00 a.m. Wednesday to Thursday.

More people were killed by tornadoes in the two-day period since April 5-6, 1936, when 454 people were killed, mostly in Tupelo, Miss., and Gainesville, Georgia," according to NOAA. And it was the deadliest single day for tornadoes since the March 18, 1925, tornado outbreak that had 747 fatalities across 7 states.

Comments

[srheard]

12:38 PM on 05/04/2011

I will be glad when this La Nina is over. It has been a duesy.

[Theoricus]

02:09 PM on 05/03/2011

Maybe if we keep our heads in the sand long enough climate change will go away?

I mean, that seems to be the public policy many Americans are adopting, ignoring a vast consensus among scientists.

What I don't understand is that even if, by some huge stroke of luck, climate change thankfully wasn't happening. There wouldn't be any reason not to get off our dependency of fossil fuels and converting to a greener economy for the sake if it being the economical and environmentally viable thing to do.

[dennisrs]

02:58 PM on 05/03/2011

Climate Change is one thing but the idea that human activity is solely responsible for it where the deep end begins
Maybe we should be more concerned with the possible discovery of a 10th planet on the outer reaches of our solar system.
Climate change is happening all the time.
I am for getting off the oil teat just don't bankrupt us all in the process. Population control is something we should be really considering. That we could effect in just a couple of generation. Less people less demand. Getting off of oil will take much longer.
We will always need the oil &gas and its products in our lives.
Yes less would be good.

[Theoricus]

04:25 PM on 05/03/2011

Yes, the world goes through climate changes, and I don't think scientists are particularly concerned with those. After all, they usually take thousands if not millions of years.

We're worried about anthropic climate change because we're throwing an entirely new wrench into the system. let's use your body as an analogy, it's a tightly contained ecosystem which is carefully moderated so that it can function as it were. Typically your body's average temperature is 37 degrees Celsius, and an increase to 40 degrees Celsius will very easily put your life into danger.

The average increase in global temperature is looking to be between 5 and 7 degrees Celsius before this century is out, the way we're going.

Again, this isn't to say the planet doesn't change temperatures from time to time, but these temperature changes either happened over an extremely long period of time, or they coincided with enormous mass extinctions.

[Howmanyreally]

01:23 PM on 05/03/2011

I vote to let this record stand.

[dennisrs]

07:16 PM on 05/02/2011

Better detecting technology has a lot to do with the number of the storms.

[Russ Klettke]

08:28 PM on 05/02/2011

.... and perhaps the lower number of deaths ...

[wolfiegirl]

09:31 PM on 05/02/2011

Both.

[trumphent]

08:53 PM on 05/02/2011

There isn't much better technology for detecting tornados than the NWS that actually send people to reported storm damage sites. It's pretty well described on the NOAA tornado pages. This report is "preliminary" and hasn't been posted yet. Still, I would think NOAA knows more about the history of tornado reporting than most people.

[dennisrs]

10:25 AM on 05/03/2011

I live in a rural area in North Louisiana and it use to be that many tornado touch weren't noticed until hunting season and hunters would find the "scars" in the woods from a touchdown. Now the NWS doppler radar would detect it. That's what I meant by technology helping the weather service. No doubt about this out break being one for the record books.

[Daniel Hicks]

05:43 PM on 05/02/2011

How long till this record gets broken again? My guess is within 20 years.

[dennisrs]

10:27 AM on 05/03/2011

If it is year or 20 years what is your point? Or are you just saying ?

[Daniel Hicks]

11:01 AM on 05/03/2011

The point is climate is changing and more extreme events are happening more and more often. I can cite the continual stream of record-breaking floods, wildfires, droughts, and tornadoes here and around the world, but many people simply can't bring themselves to accept objective reality. It's frustrating, because people are dying preventable deaths because of others' outdated political philosophies.

[jimboy71]

12:55 PM on 05/03/2011

I'm going to go out on a limb and say within three.

[dennisrs]

01:23 PM on 05/03/2011

Betting shops in the UK will take your bets on it if you are that sure.

[rezna]

04:55 PM on 05/02/2011

Both amazing and terrible at the same time. =(

[ILoveFiction]

04:41 PM on 05/02/2011

That would be 50 percent more than in 74.

Staggering.

[dennisrs]

07:17 PM on 05/02/2011

How many went undetected in 74 ? Who knows.