Tornado Outbreak Spawned EF4s In Arkansas, Mississippi; Over 110 Twisters Confirmed In South, Midwest, East

Man Rescues Aunt After Deadly Tornadoes

A multi-day, deadly severe weather outbreak spawned over 110 tornadoes in 14 states, along with damaging thunderstorm winds from the South to the Midwest and East in the largest rash of severe weather so far in 2025.

The Top Level Stats

The National Weather Service confirmed 112 tornadoes touched down in the U.S. in the three-day outbreak from March 14-16.

Of those, 44 were categorized as "strong" tornadoes, those that produced at least EF2 damage on the Enhanced Fujita scale from which tornadoes are rated and peak winds are estimated.

(MORE: Tornado Outbreak News Updates, Death Toll)

That's an impressive fraction (39%) of stronger tornadoes indicative of a major outbreak. By contrast, an early March outbreak in the South spawned 30 tornadoes, but only one of them was strong.

In addition to the tornadoes, there were 1,010 reports of large hail and either damaging or strong thunderstorm wind gusts during the outbreak.

Over 900 tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued by local NWS offices during the outbreak.

The 'Violent' Tornadoes

Three of these tornadoes were rated EF4, a threshold the NWS classifies as violent tornadoes. Twisters this strong aren't rare, but they make up a small fraction of America's yearly tornado tally. From zero to six EF4 tornadoes occurred in the U.S. each year from 2015 through 2024.

Two of those EF4 tracked through northern Arkansas at night on March 14. The first one tore a 46-mile long path in just under an hour through Stone, Izard and Sharp Counties, destroying cabins and homes, injuring four. The second EF4 tornado carved through parts of Independence and Jackson Counties, north of Newport, injuring two.

These were the strongest tornadoes in Arkansas since the Dec. 10, 2021 outbreak, according to the NWS-Little Rock office. It was also the first time in almost 28 years that two F/EF4 tornadoes happened on the same day in the state.

The other violent tornado left EF4 damage in its wake in two separate areas of southern Mississippi on its 65-mile long path from Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, to Covington County, Mississippi. While five people were killed in this tornado, one resident whose home was destroyed "fled to a brick building upon receiving a storm warning," according to the NWS-Jackson, Mississippi, damage survey.

Long-Track Tornadoes

Another signature of a higher-end outbreak was the number of long-track tornadoes.

In northeast Arkansas, an EF3 tornado tore an almost 82-mile-long path from Independence County to Clay County.

Check out these impressive tornado path totals by state:

- Missouri: At least 341.05 miles

- Mississippi: 277.23 miles

- Arkansas: 253.74 miles

- Alabama: 235.42 miles

That's a total of 1,107 miles of tornado path lengths from just those four states combined. It's longer than the driving distance from Atlanta to Boston (1,076 miles).

Other Notable Damage

One other long-track EF2 tornado tracked through the northwest St. Louis metro area, narrowly missing Lambert International Airport before crossing the Mississippi River near Alton, Illinois. A roof blown off from this tornado also appeared to slice into a standing tree in a rather strange occurrence in Maryland Heights, Missouri.

Just across the Mississippi River, wind-driven hail damaged homes and other buildings in O'Fallon, Illinois, minutes before an EF1 tornado was spawned just northeast of the town.

Sadly, the same home in Paragould, Arkansas, damaged by a late May 2024 tornado was damaged again by an EF2 tornado just after midnight on March 15.

In southern Mississippi, two strong tornadoes hit a part of western Covington County in a span of 41 minutes on March 15. The first to do that was the long-track EF4 tornado from Louisiana just before it fizzled, followed by a second tornado rated EF2. These paths intersected "in a forested area just north of Spring Hill School Road", according to the National Weather Service damage survey. NWS-Jackson posted an animation of Doppler velocity showing the pair of tornadoes here.

In Alabama, an EF2 tornado flipped a school bus onto the roof of the Winterboro High School gymnasium in Talladega County. One person was killed in this tornado. An EF3 tornado heavily damaged homes and businesses and killed two in Plantersville.

Finally, the outbreak ended with a predawn EF1 tornado on St. Patrick's Day near Woodville, North Carolina. While it destroyed three mobile homes and damaged others, miraculously, nobody was killed though eight injuries were reported.

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.