Tornado outbreak of April 27–30, 2014

A relatively widespread, damaging, and deadly tornado outbreak struck the central and southern United States in late April 2014, with the bulk of the activity occurring on April 27 and 28. The storm complex responsible for the outbreak produced multiple long-track and intense to violent tornadoes – seven of which were deadly, causing 35 fatalities. One additional death occurred in Florida, due to severe flooding associated with this system. On April 27, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) first issued a high risk for parts of Arkansas, as a broad upper-level trough slowed over the High Plains and Central United States, where strong tornadic activity occurred, including a violent high-end EF4 tornado that devastated the towns of Mayflower and Vilonia that evening, killing 16 and injuring nearly 200, necessitating the issuance of a tornado emergency. Multiple other strong tornadoes touched down that night as well.

April 28 saw the most prolific tornado activity, with another high risk issued by the SPC and a particularly dangerous situation tornado watch for parts of central Mississippi and Alabama, and multiple intense to violent tornadoes touched down across the Deep South. Another violent high-end EF4 tornado struck the town of Louisville, Mississippi, killing ten and injuring 84. A few more deadly tornadoes touched down in Tennessee and Alabama that night; including an EF3 near Flintville, Tennessee that killed two – several more tornado emergencies were issued that day as well, the most in a single day since the March 2, 2012 tornado outbreak. Scattered activity and weaker tornadoes occurred on April 29 and 30 across the eastern U.S. before the outbreak came to an end.

This event was the first major tornado outbreak to hit the United States in 2014; it covered a large swath from Nebraska to Louisiana, Illinois to Florida, and Oklahoma to North Carolina. This system affected millions in the Northeastern United States on April 30, causing significant, damaging floods in Maryland and flash flood advisories as far north as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the metropolitan area and suburbs of New York City. With a grand total of 82 tornadoes over a four-day period, the tornado outbreak gained 97 points on the outbreak intensity score.