On This Day in 1971: The Mississippi Delta Tornado Outbreak

On the 21^st and 22^nd of February 1971, an extensive outbreak of nineteen tornadoes tore across parts of Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. This significant event is known as the Mississippi Delta Tornado Outbreak.

The outbreak occurred when a powerful low-pressure system from the Gulf of Mexico deepened as it moved from east Texas towards central Missouri. Meanwhile, an upper-level low coming from the Rocky Mountains pushed into the central Plains. The addition of strong wind shear and uncharacteristically high instability for February created an ideal environment for the formation of tornadoes across the southern Plains to Mississippi Valley.

The initial thunderstorm activity bubbled up early on the morning of February 21^st, with the first tornadoes reported in Texas east of Austin and north of Waco. By the afternoon, temperatures rose into the 60s and 70s along with sufficiently high dew points across the Mississippi Delta. Thunderstorm activity erupted throughout the southeastern part of Arkansas, northeast Louisiana, and western Mississippi, and would continue until late in the evening. Thunderstorms produced tornadoes as they rapidly marched northeast over the Mississippi and Tennessee to Ohio valleys.

Out of all the tornadoes in the outbreak, thirteen reached F2 or higher, making up three F3s, two F4s, and an incredible F5 tornado – the only one of its kind to occur in February on record.

The outbreak caused 123 deaths and almost 1,600 injuries, making it the second deadliest outbreak since the Enigma Outbreak of 1884.

The devastating F5 tornado from the Mississippi Valley Outbreak tragically caused 47 fatalities and over 500 injuries. It had a remarkable track length of 109 miles and a maximum width of 500 feet, making it the only F5 since 1950 to hit Louisiana. Inverness, Mississippi suffered particularly heavy damage from the storm and 21 people perished in the town.

The F5 storm was not the deadliest tornado of the outbreak. An F4 holds that title, which travelled 202 miles, covering from east of the Louisiana/Mississippi border to Tennessee. Small towns were annihilated, and entire families died in its path, leading to its status of the deadliest February tornado in modern records.

F2+ tornadoes were also documented in Texas, Ohio, and North Carolina, with the Ohio and North Carolina tornadoes reaching F3 on the 22nd. In North Carolina, a tornado that started in Fayetteville left a trail of destruction in its 85-mile path to the northeast.

Source: NOAA, weather.gov, wikipedia

----------
Story Image: Tornado damage in Inverness, Mississippi in February 1971. (NOAA Natural Disaster Survey Report).