Severe Weather

Severe Weather Outbreak With Widespread Damaging Winds, Over 50 Tornadoes Swept Through Midwest, South, East

Over 800 reports of high winds and wind damage from severe thunderstorms accompanied a two-day outbreak from Texas to the Midwest and Northeast in mid-March 2026. Here's what happened.

This shows all the severe reports received by the National Weather Service in the March 15-16, 2026 outbreak. Additional tornadoes may be confirmed in the days after this map was compiled.
(Data: NOAA/NWS/SPC)

A severe weather outbreak lashed parts of the South, Midwest and East with widespread damaging winds and over 50 tornadoes in a third outbreak in the first half of March 2026.

Over a two-day span from March 15-16, over 800 reports of high winds and wind damage generated by severe thunderstorms were received by the National Weather Service from eastern Texas to the Midwest to the East Coast.

Among the many cities that reported these thunderstorm winds or damage included Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago, Nashville, Indianapolis, Louisville, Atlanta, Raleigh, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City.

In Jonesboro, Arkansas, a 75 mph wind gust tore shingles off a roof. In Brookwood, Alabama, one motorist was injured when high winds topped a tree onto a car. Another tree fell on a home in Duval County, Florida due to thunderstorm winds.

Winds gusted to 71 mph at Newark and 72 mph at JFK Airport as thunderstorms swept through the New York City tri-state area just after midnight on March 17.

The NWS confirmed 51 tornadoes in 12 states in this outbreak, all of which were either rated EF0 or EF1. Seventeen of those tornadoes touched down in Illinois while another eight were confirmed in Missouri.

That included an EF0 tornado in the north Charlotte metro area on the morning of March 16, the city's first tornado since Dec. 29, 2024.

(MORE: Outbreak Impacts)

CHARLOTTE, USA - MARCH 16: An EF0 tornado touched down uprooting trees and causing damage to several homes in Charlotte NC, United States on March 16, 2026. (Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images) — An EF0 tornado touched down uprooting trees and causing damage to several homes in Charlotte NC, United States on March 16, 2026.
(Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)

There were also more than 60 large hail reports, with tennis ball-sized hail being reported in San Augustine and Nacogdoches Counties, Texas.

This severe outbreak was the third in a 12-day span in March 2026. It hit some areas that were also hit by severe weather in one or both of the previous outbreaks from March 5-8 and March 10-12.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.