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Today in History: Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak
Today is the 70th anniversary of the Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak. Between the evening of April 5, 1936, and the morning of April 6, 1936, seventeen tornadoes occured between Tupelo, Mississippi and Gainesville, Georgia. The system included the 4th and 5th deadliest tornadoes in US history.
The NOAA lists this event collectively as the 5th most severe tornado in the US.
For more information specifically about the Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak, Answer.com, Reference.com, and Wikipedia all have more (if sometimes almost identical) information.
For more information on historical tornadoes, the Weather Channel's weather.com has information on historical tornadoes and NOAA also has a listing of historical tornadoes.
Unfortunately, NOAA is already predicting a quick start to the tornado season this year:
NOAA Reports Tornado Season Starts Busy
Outbreak Underscores Value of NOAA Weather Radio
A warm winter contributed to a busy and deadly start to the tornado season, according to NOAA meteorologists. A total of 68 tornado reports and 26 tornado fatalities in eight states on Sunday brought the totals for the year to 355 tornado reports and 38 deaths, said Dan McCarthy, warning coordination meteorologist with the NOAA Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. Sunday's storms also caused two wind-related deaths and approximately 196 injuries. This is the highest total number of reports for the first three months of the year since 1999 and is a sharp contrast to last year when only 96 tornado reports and five deaths occurred by April 3. The number of deaths so far is the highest since 1998.
— michael | April 5, 2006 08:28 AM | I found it online
