Mississippi Valley tornado outbreak of February 1971

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Mississippi Valley tornado outbreak of February 1971

Date of tornado outbreak:	February 21-22, 1971
Duration1:	~32 hours
Maximum rated tornado2:	F5 tornado
Tornadoes caused:	19
Damages:	unknown
Fatalities:	123
Areas affected:	Southern and Southeastern United States
1Time from first tornado to last tornado 2Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita Scale

The Mississippi Valley tornado outbreak of February 1971 was deadly a tornado outbreak that struck portions of the Lower Mississippi River Valley and the Southeastern United States on February 21-22, 1971. The two-day outbreak which produced 19 tornadoes, killed 123 people across 3 states. The majority of the fatalities were caused by three violent tornadoes across western Mississippi and northeastern Louisiana. The outbreak is the second deadliest outbreak since the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965 before the Super Outbreak of 1974.

Contents 1 Outbreak summary 2 Tornado table 3 Confirmed tornadoes 3.1 February 21 event 3.2 February 22 event 4 References 5 See also

[edit] Outbreak summary

Activity started early during the morning of February 21. The first tornadoes touched down in Texas east of Austin and north of Waco. The main activity intensified during the afternoon over the Mississippi River and Tennessee Valleys until the late evening hours.

At around 3:00 PM CST a tornado touched down in Madison Parish, Louisiana and tore through a deadly 110 mile-path from south of Delhi near modern day Interstate 20 northeast through or near Delhi, Waverly, Alsatia and Transylvania before crossing the Mississippi River into the state of Mississippi. Then it affected areas in and around Mayersville, Inverness and Moorhead before dissipating. 47 people were killed by the tornado including 11 in Louisiana and 36 in Mississippi. In Inverness alone, 21 were killed while 200 others were injured. 150 buildings across the town were damaged or destroyed.^[1]The Delhi tornado is the only official F5 to have hit the State of Louisiana since tornado records began in 1950. It is also the deadliest F5 tornado since the Candlestick Park Tornado that tore a 200-mile long path from Jackson, Mississippi to near Tuscaloosa, Alabama killing 58. It is also the seventh longest tornado ever in the state but the length figures includes travel distance from Louisiana.^[2]

Outbreak death toll

State	Total	County	County total
Louisiana	11	Madison	11
Mississippi	110	Humphreys	32
		Leflore	14
		Sharkey	23
		Sunflower	28
		Warren	2
		Yazoo	11
North Carolina	2	Cumberland	2
Totals	123
All deaths were tornado-related

At around 4:00 PM CST, the deadliest tornado of the outbreak touched down just east of the Mississippi River near Fitler and just a few miles east of the F5 tornado that has path lengths varying from 160 to 200 miles long, the F4 tornado affected areas in and around Issaquena, Rolling Fork, Anguilla, Bellewood, Itta Bena (just west of Greenwood), and Oxford before dissipating just across the Tennessee State line. Most of its path was just a few miles east of the areas affected by the F5 tornado and several counties were affected by both tornadoes. With 58 fatalities, including 14 near Cary and 21 in Pugh City^[3], this tornado is the deadliest tornado on record since the Udall, Kansas tornado during the 1955 Great Plains tornado outbreak where over 80 have been killed. It is also the deadliest tornado in Mississippi since 1950 surpassing the Candlestick Park Tornado in 1966 by one fatality (although one person was killed in Alabama).^[4][5] However, the number of deaths is well short of the Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak in 1936 where at least 230 were killed in a single F5 storm in Tupelo and the Great Natchez Tornado where over 300 were killed in Natchez in 1840. The tornado also had a similar path length as the 1966 storm but according to National Weather Service records, it is the second longest tornado path ever in the state.^[6]

Two other tornadoes in Mississippi killed at least 16 people in Yazoo, Warren and Sunflower Counties. The Yazoo County tornado is the 16th longest ever in Mississippi as it traveled for nearly 70 miles.^[7] This outbreak is also one of the deadliest ever in the history of the state with 110 deaths. Most of the region was declared a disaster area by then-US President Richard Nixon. Additional tornadoes touched down on the following day from Indiana to the Carolinas, including one in the Columbus Metropolitan Area. 2 people in North Carolina were also killed by a 60-mile long tornado that started near the Fayetteville area. The entire outbreak is the second deadliest ever in February, behind only the Enigma tornado outbreak in 1884 and ahead of the 2008 Super Tuesday tornado outbreak.

[edit] Tornado table

Confirmed Total	Confirmed F0	Confirmed F1	Confirmed F2	Confirmed F3	Confirmed F4	Confirmed F5
19	2	4	7	3	2	1

[edit] Confirmed tornadoes

[edit] February 21 event

F#	Location	County	Time (UTC)	Path length	Damage
Texas
F2	Lacy-Lakeview area	McLennan	1330	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F1	SW of Lincoln	Lee	1415	0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Louisiana
F5	SW of Delhi, LA to S of Schlater, MS	Madison, LA, East Carroll, Issaquena, Sharkey, Washington, Humphreys, Sunflower, Leflore	2050	109.2 miles (174.7 km)	47 deaths
Arkansas
F2	SW of Dermott to E of McGehee	Drew, Desha	2100	17.1 miles (27.4 km)
F2	S of Wynne	St. Francis	2300	4.6 miles (7.4 km)
Mississippi
F4	S of Fitler, MS to SW of Middleton, TN	Issaquena, MS, Sharkey, Humphreys, Leflore, Grenada, Marshall, Hardeman, TN	2200	202.1 miles (323.4 km)	58 deaths
F4	S of Bovina to SW of Lexington	Warren, Yazoo, Holmes	2306	65.2 miles (104.3 km)	13 deaths
F3	N of Whitney	Sunflower	2330	8.6 miles (13.8 km)	3 deaths
F0	S of McRaven	Hinds	0054	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F2	SW of Ashland	Benton	0100	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F1	SW of Florence	Rankin	0110	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F0	Brandon area	Rankin	0135	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F2	NE of Pontotoc	Pontotoc	0230	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
Tennessee
F2	SE of Selmer	McNairy	0335	1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Source: Tornado History Project - February 21, 1971 Storm Data

[edit] February 22 event

F#	Location	County	Time (UTC)	Path length	Damage
Indiana
F1	SW of Greensburg	Decatur	1800	9.1 miles (14.6 km)
South Carolina
F1	E of St. Matthews	Calhoun	2120	11.9 miles (19 km)
Ohio
F2	SE of Pancoastburg	Fayette, Pickaway	2125	2 miles (3.2 km)
F3	Columbus area	Franklin	2155	6.8 miles (10.9 km)
North Carolina
F3	Fayetteville	Cumberland, Sampson, Greene, Edgecombe, Pitt	2230	85.7 miles (137.1 km)	2 deaths
Source: Tornado History Project - February 22, 1971 Storm Data

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks