Early April Tornado Outbreak Spawned EF3s in Five States: Over 140 Twisters Confirmed In South, Midwest

Tornado Terror: Family Recounts Moment Tree Falls On Home

An outbreak of severe thunderstorms spawned over 140 tornadoes in 14 states over several days from the South into the Midwest in early April.

The Top Level Breakdown

The National Weather Service confirmed 148 tornadoes occurred in a six-day period from April 2-7. Sixty percent of those (89) did so from April 2 into the early morning of April 3.

Indiana led the way with 21 tornadoes, followed by Mississippi with 20, Arkansas and Tennessee with 18 and Illinois with 17.

Damage surveys may continue for the next few days so those tornado tallies could tick higher.

In addition to the tornadoes, there were over 860 reports of large hail, severe thunderstorm wind gusts and damage over those six days.

Over a 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m. EDT April 3, the National Weather Service issued 728 severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings combined, third most of any 24-hour period since 1986, according to the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

Stronger Tornadoes

Of those, 40 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.

April 2-3

In southeast Missouri, an EF3 tornado damaged or destroyed homes near the town of Latty, about 55 miles southwest of St. Louis during the April 2 outbreak.

That evening, another EF3 tornado demolished homes in Lake City and Monette, Arkansas, about 50 miles north-northwest of Memphis.

And just after midnight, an EF3 tornado embedded in a line of severe thunderstorms carved a 10-mile-long path through the eastern side of the Louisville, Kentucky, metro area. Since 1950, the only other tornado to receive that high a rating in Jefferson County was an F4 during the April 3, 1974, Super Outbreak.

One of the longest tracks of this outbreak was a 49-mile-long tornado rated EF2 from extreme southeast Illinois to just north of Terre Haute, Indiana.

April 3-7

Over the following five days, multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms and flooding rain hammered parts of the South and Midwest.

Eight of the tornadoes during that stretch were rated EF2.

Five of those were in Mississippi on April 6, including one near the town of Stringer which "launched" and "destroyed" a mobile home onto two nearby vehicles, killing one person inside the mobile home.

Other EF2 tornadoes in this stretch included a pair of Texas twisters on April 4 in Morris and Red River Counties, and an April 5 tornado in Cross County, Arkansas.

Other Notable Tornadoes

Staff at the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, was forced to take cover on the evening of April 2 as a tornado later rated EF2 just missed the office. The 24-hour period ending 7 a.m. CT on April 3 appeared to have topped the record number of tornadoes in NWS-Paducah's forecast area (at least 22 tornadoes) in any outbreak since 1995.

An EF1 tornado sliced through Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on April 2. Fortunately, damage to trees, homes and businesses was considered minor by the National Weather Service on its track through the city's downtown, then across the Mississippi River.

In the northwest Indianapolis suburb of Brownsburg, a tornado tracked through parts of the city's downtown, with mainly scattered, minor damage. But it injured one person when a warehouse wall caved in.

Finally, an EF1 tornado in Branch County, Michigan, was a bit tougher for National Weather Service staff to survey. That's because less than 48 hours after the tornado, affected residents of an Amish community had already repaired the damage, as senior meteorologist Chris Dolce explained.

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.