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Deadly weekend storm packed a month's worth of bad weather into 3 days

Dinah Voyles Pulver   Paste BN
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A violent storm system that swept the nation over the weekend delivered an unusually powerful punch, spinning up more than 50 tornadoes, fanning wildfires and killing at least 42 people.

There's a reason for the old adage that March "comes in like a lion." During this transition between winter and spring, it's not unusual to get severe weather, but this system and its tornado outbreak had more impact than usual, said Evan Bentley, a forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center.

"The very strong system that developed in the Central Plains resulted in dust storms in the Southern Plains, extreme fire behavior in Oklahoma, blizzard conditions in the Northern Plains and then the severe weather Friday, Saturday and Sunday from the Midwest all the way across the East Coast," Bentley said.

How many tornadoes were there this weekend?

The National Weather Service sent survey teams out all weekend, and again on Monday to try to assess the storm damage and total number of tornadoes, but it will be days before final numbers are ready, Bentley said.

Over a three-day period Friday through Sunday, the storm prediction center received more than 1,000 severe weather reports, including tornadoes, high winds and hail. "That's nearly the normal number we would receive for the entire month of March," Bentley said.

Winds as high as 70-80 mph were clocked in many locations.

In total on Friday and Saturday, the weather service received 104 tornado reports. Bentley said that number could include more than one report from the same tornado, but sometimes no storm report is received in real time and meteorologists find tornado evidence after the fact during the post-storm surveys.

As of Monday, around noon, the weather service had confirmed more than 50 tornadoes, including seven tornadoes of EF3 strength and two of EF4 strength, he said. "That number is going to go up."

In Little Rock, the weather service identified two separate tornado tracks in Arkansas with damage rated at EF4 from March 14, one in Jackson County and another in Izard County. Meteorologist Colby Pope said the last time more than one EF4 track occurred on the same day in the state was March 1, 1997.

An EF3 in Bakersfield, Missouri, had peak winds of 140 mph. It rolled cars, destroyed homes and killed three people.

One of the tornadoes over the weekend tracked more than 24 miles, and longer tornadoes take more time to survey, Bentley said. One summary from the Jackson, Mississippi, weather service office, where at least eight tornadoes occurred, described the complex challenges including "long paths, complications from crossing tornado paths" and road accessibility issues.

What is the EF rating for tornadoes?

EF stands for Enhanced Fujita Scale and it's a rating system of zero to five, with five being most intense. The scale of estimated wind speeds is based on damage seen along a tornado's track.

What caused this March tornado outbreak?

A trio of conditions in the atmosphere came together to unleash nature's fury from coast to coast. Meteorologists and atmospheric scientists could see it coming several days ahead as a massive system over the Pacific Ocean closed in on the West Coast.

When Pacific coast systems cross over the Rockies and arrive over the Great Plains and the Central United States, it's common to have low pressure areas develop, thanks to the unique geography that brings together drier air from the Desert Southwest and moisture-rich air from the Gulf. It's the reason the larger region is considered the tornado capital of the world.

In this case high winds in a very strong jet stream aloft encountered very dry air from the Desert Southwest while unusual warmth in the Gulf was pulling extra moisture in, Bentley said. He said the barometric pressure readings below 980 millibars were levels that could be typically expected with a Category 1 hurricane,.

Sometimes the March systems come through and the right ingredients aren't all there, Bentley said. It may be too dry or the Gulf moisture hasn't moved far enough north yet. The warmer the Gulf temperatures, the higher the moisture content and the greater likelihood that moisture will push inland.

Sea surface temperatures in some pockets of the Gulf have been running as much as five degrees or more warmer than normal.

Where did the tornado deaths occur?

As of Monday afternoon, officials had reported 42 deaths in eight states, as a result of multivehicle pileups during dust storms, wildfires fanned by the high winds and tornado damage. The following have been confirmed:

  • Missouri, 12
  • Kansas, 8
  • Mississippi, 6
  • Texas, 4
  • Oklahoma, 4
  • Alabama, 3
  • Arkansas, 3
  • North Carolina, 2

Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate change and the environment for Paste BN. She's written about hurricanes, tornadoes and violent weather for more than 30 years. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X.

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