The Tornado outbreak sequence of April 1996 was a series of

tornado outbreaks These are some notable tornadoes, tornado outbreaks, and tornado outbreak sequences that have occurred around the globe. # ''Exact death and injury counts are not possible; especially for large events and events before 1955.'' # ''Prior to 1950 in ...

that occurred across a large area of eastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

over a three-day period between April 19 and April 21, 1996. A total of 118 tornadoes touched down in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

and Southeast region over the three-day period, killing six people and becoming the most notable outbreaks of the year. The 19th was the most prolific tornado outbreak in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

history with 33 tornadoes touching down across the state, breaking the old record of 25 set on August 10, 1974. This outbreak can also be compared to the

May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence The Tornado outbreak sequence of May 2004 was a series of tornado outbreaks that affected much of southern Ontario, the Central and Southern United States from east of the Rockies to the Mid-Atlantic States from May 21 to May 31, 2004. Particularl ...

as it was a very large, deep, and vigorous system. The same system produced tornadoes in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

on the 20th and destructive tornadoes in

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

, and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

on the 21st.

Meteorological synopsis

April 19

The outbreak occurred when the warm front of a deep storm system moved north and east out of

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. April 19 started off cool and skies were overcast ahead of the warm front. Meteorologists were trying to figure out if the warm front would move into Illinois that afternoon. As the day wore on, temperatures warmed,

dew point The dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated with water vapor, assuming constant air pressure and water content. When cooled below the dew point, moisture capacity is reduced and airborne water vapor will cond ...

s rose, and thunderstorms started to explode in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

during the mid-afternoon hours. Although there were some doubts on specifics, the potential significance of the outbreak was rather foreseeable, with storm chasers traveling from the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

and the Storm Prediction Center issuing a high risk early on.

Illinois

A total of 33 tornadoes hit

before spreading west and south into

, and

and east and north into

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, and

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

on Friday, April 19. The town of Decatur was hit by a large F3 tornado, as were the towns of

Urbana __NOTOC__ Urbana can refer to: Places Italy *Urbana, Italy United States *Urbana, Illinois **Urbana (conference), a Christian conference formerly held in Urbana, Illinois *Urbana, Indiana * Urbana, Iowa *Urbana, Kansas * Urbana, Maryland *Urbana, ...

and Ogden. Major damage and injuries occurred in all three locations, and one person was killed in Ogden.

Indiana

In Indiana, 21 tornadoes were produced as the cold front moved into the area during the evening hours. Temperatures had warmed well into the 70's and lower 80's (20 to 26 °C) before the storms hit. Five people were injured in Morgan County.

April 20

One of Canada's most prolific tornado events struck

. A vigorous branch of the

jet stream Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow, meandering thermal wind, air currents in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheres of some planets, including Earth. On Earth, the main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are west ...

from the Pacific Ocean combined with rich low-level moisture kept the storm system rolling, spinning off more tornadoes in the Southeast. One tornado hit

Carroll County, Mississippi Carroll County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 9,998. Its county seats are Carrollton, Mississippi, Carrollton and Vaiden, Mississippi, Vai ...

, killing teenager Dexter Forman when a tree fell on his mobile home. Another tornado did massive damage to Berea, Kentucky, but no one was killed.

April 21

The outbreak across the south-central U.S. on the 21st was produced by a different weather system. A final tornado was produced by the first system in southern

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, more tornadoes raked through eastern

and western

, killing a father and son in St. Paul and two other children in Fort Smith. Shortly after the outbreak, the local CBS affiliate in Fort Smith, Arkansas, KFSM-TV, produced ''Sunday's Fury'', a video production outlining the sequence of events that surrounded the Fort Smith tornado that day.

Confirmed tornadoes

April 19 event

April 20 event

April 21 event

References

External links

A wild weekend across the USA
(

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

)
Overview of the April 19 - 22, 1996 outbreak
(USA Today)
Violent storms lash South, Midwest
(

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

)
Galva, IL Tornado
(NWS Quad Cities, IA/IL)
The Central Illinois Severe Weather Outbreak of April 19, 1996
(

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

)
April 19, 1996 - Illinois Tornado Outbreak
(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
NWS Service Assessment (Ft. Smith and Van Buren, AR)

(Proceedings, 19th Conference on Severe Local Storms,

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the Atmospheric sciences, atmospheric, Oceanography, oceanic, and Hydrology, hydr ...

)
Initiation and Evolution of Severe Convection in the 19 April 1996 Illinois Tornado Outbreak
(Proceedings, 20th Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society)

( National Severe Storms Laboratory)
Federal Disaster Declaration
(

Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

)
1900 UTC (2:00 p.m. CDT) Day 1 Outlook Text from April 19, 1996 (incomplete)

{{DEFAULTSORT:1996-04 Tornado F3 tornadoes Tornadoes of 1996 Tornadoes in Quebec Tornadoes in Arkansas Tornadoes in Illinois Tornado 1996-04 Tornado 1996-04 Tornado 1996-04 Tornadoes in Ontario Tornadoes in Oklahoma Tornadoes in Missouri Tornadoes in Indiana Tornadoes in Tennessee Tornadoes in Kentucky Tornadoes in Texas Tornadoes in Mississippi Tornadoes in North Carolina Tornadoes in Louisiana Tornado 1996-04

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

1996-04-21

Meteorological synopsis

April 19

Illinois

Indiana

April 20

April 21

Confirmed tornadoes

April 19 event

April 20 event

April 21 event

See also

References

External links