On This Day in 1975: Multi-Day Tornado Outbreak Begins

A menacing multi-day tornado outbreak dotted parts of the nation’s midsection to the southern U.S. at an unusual time of year – beginning January 9, 1975. Forty five tornadoes, $235.5 dollars in 2024 damage, and more than 280 injuries aren’t stats that will forever be forgotten.

Part of the “Great Storm of 1975”, the first tornadoes began to form in the storm’s warm, humid air across parts of the Oklahoma and Texas Plains to Louisiana and Arkansas after sunset on January 9th. An F1 tornado traveled 12.4 miles in Pittsburg County, Okla., near Ashland to southeast of Arpelar, touching down after 10 p.m. CST. An F2, part of four total tornadoes on January 9th, carved a destructive 18-mile path near Quebec to east of Transylvania, La. Two homes were destroyed, as were numerous barns, outbuildings, two trailers, and a church was badly damaged. Eleven people were injured in the chaos.

The outbreak worsened on January 10th as the storm intensified, especially predawn through the first half of the day. Criss-crossing Texas to Illinois, Indiana, and Georgia to North Carolina and Florida, 37 tornadoes touched down that day. The most intense, long-lived, was an F4 that remained on the ground for an astonishing 56.5 miles, covering Pike, Lincoln, Lawrence, and Simpson Counties in southwestern Mississippi. Homes, apartments, businesses, and vehicles were leveled in McComb, Miss. Two schools and two National Guard armories were badly damaged also. Rural areas between McComb and Pinola, Miss., suffered similar devastation. More than 10,000 trees were snapped or uprooted. Even sadder, there were 9 deaths and 210 injuries.

Another destructive tornado, this time an F3, raced across St. Clair County in Alabama near Pell City to Ragland on the evening of January 10th. Forty nine homes were destroyed and 259 more were damaged, this in addition to 15 trailers and 27 business in Pell City, Ala. Five more homes were destroyed and 48 damaged in Ragland, Ala. A single death occurred as this tornado finally dissipated after an 18.8 mile rampage.

More than 30-percent of the tornadoes that occurred on January 10th were rated F2 intensity or higher on the Fujita Scale. Eleven deaths and 252 injuries happened on January 10th, the same day record warmth reached as far north as the Interstate 90/94 and 70 corridors across the Ohio Valley. Chicago and Indianapolis, Ind., climbed into the 60s, peaking at 60 and 62 degrees, respectively.

After a much-needed break on January 11th, a combination of record Southeastern U.S. warmth and developing low pressure along a stalled front near the central Gulf Coast unleashed more tornado activity on January 12th. At least three tornadoes touched down, two which traveled an astonishing 53 and nearly 169 miles across parts of Florida to Georgia. Twelve injuries occurred in an F1 between Greenhead and Horrsville, Fla., with one death and 18 injuries occurring in an F2 tornado that tracked from Panama City, Fla., to Bethel, Ga. A final F2 tornado forged a 2 mile path across the Lyons, Ga., area, damaging trailers and several homes, as well as destroying several businesses.
---
Mobile home damage from an F3 tornado in St. Clair County, Ala., on January 10, 1975. (Wikimedia Commons, NOAA