Southeastern tornado outbreak of April 1957

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Southeastern tornado outbreak of April 1957

April 8, 1958 outbreak.jpg
Date of tornado outbreak:	April 8, 1957
Duration1:	~16 hours
Maximum rated tornado2:	F4 tornado
Tornadoes caused:	18
Damages:	Unknown
Fatalities:	7
Areas affected:	Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
1Time from first tornado to last tornado 2Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita Scale

The Southeastern tornado outbreak of April 8, 1957 was one of a handful of notable severe weather and tornado outbreaks to strike the southern and southeastern United States during April, 1957. This outbreak was responsible for producing 7 deaths and 207 injuries in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The outbreak began with weak tornadoes confirmed during the early morning near Tupelo, MS and Cookeville, TN. Stronger tornadoes formed during the late morning and mid-day hours along a path crossing northern Alabama, with F3 tornadoes crossing 8 counties, and causing 90 injuries north of Cullman. These storms dissipated shortly after crossing into northwestern Georgia.

Two hours later, additional tornadoes families developed simultaneously along two paths - the first was a series of weak, but long-duration tornadoes that crossed parts of 5 counties southern Georgia.

The second series began in Union County, SC, moving along an eastern extension of the path carved by the earlier Alabama tornadoes. This series of storms swiftly became the most destructive produced by this outbreak, with a trio of F3 and F4 tornadoes moving along a nearly continuous path more than 120 miles long from Lancaster County, SC to Sampson County, NC, with some of the most severe damage seen in Jefferson, SC and Salemburg, NC. An additional, short-lived F4 tornado was reported just south of this main path in Robeson County, NC, and the predominant supercell produced an additional F3 tornado in Duplin County. This storm produced additional non-tornadic severe weather to the east coast, moving offshore in Carteret County, NC.

The outbreak ended shortly before midnight with an F1 tornado that briefly touched down - producing 2 additional injuries - in downtown Norfolk, Virginia.

Contents 1 Tornado table 2 Confirmed tornadoes 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Tornado table

Confirmed Total	Confirmed F0	Confirmed F1	Confirmed F2	Confirmed F3	Confirmed F4	Confirmed F5
18	0	3	8	5	2	0

[edit] Confirmed tornadoes

F#	Location	County	Time (UTC)	Path length	Damage
Arkansas
F2	N of Waldron	Scott	0505 (04/07)	4.7 miles (7.5 km)
Alabama
F2	N of Red Bay	Franklin	0535 (04/07)	unknown
F3	S of Hamilton to NE of Upshaw	Marion, Winston, Lawrence	1546	51.4 miles (82.2 km)
F3	NE of Battleground to N of Cottonville	Morgan, Marshall	1615	38.8 miles (62.1 km)	2 deaths
F3	S of Hulaco to NE of Warrenton	Cullman, Morgan, Marshall	1630	16.3 miles (26.1 km)
Mississippi
F2	SW of Verona	Lee	0910	9 miles (14.4 km)
F1	SE of Bruce	Calhoun	1400	unknown
Tennessee
F2	N of Woody	Cumberland	1200	2.7 miles (4.3 km)
F2	E of Bowmantown	Washington	2130	3 miles (4.8 km)
Georgia
F2	Calhoun area	Gordon	1900	10.3 miles (16.5 km)
F1	N of Tifton to Douglas	Tift, Irwin, Coffee	2100	41.3 miles (66.1 km)
F3	N of Jacksonville	Telfair	2130	14.7 miles (23.5 km)
F2	N of Brooksville	Randolph	2330	5.2 miles (8.3 km)
South Carolina
F2	S of Cross Keys to S of Santuc	Union	2100	15.2 miles (24.3 km)
F4	N of Kershaw, SC to Roseboro, NC	Lancaster, SC, Chesterfield, Marlboro, Scotland, NC, Robeson, Cumberland, Sampson	2200	121.4 miles (194.2 km)	4 deaths
Virginia
F1	N of Norfolk	Norfolk	2220	1 miles (1.6 km)
North Carolina
F4	Pembroke area	Robeson	0100	0.8 miles (1.3 km)
F3	SE of Concord	Duplin	0200	8 miles (12.8 km)
Source: Tornado History Project - April 8, 1957 Storm Data

[edit] See also

• List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

[edit] References

v • d • e Tornado events in Alabama Enigma (1884) • Palm Sunday (1920) • May 1929 • March 1932 • April 1936 • Birmingham (1956) • April 1957 • Super Outbreak (1974) • January 1975 • Birmingham (1977) • Huntsville (1989) • November 1992 • Palm Sunday (1994) • Huntsville (1995) • Birmingham (1998) • Tuscaloosa (2000) • November 2001 • Veterans Day (2002) • Hurricane Katrina (2005) • November 2005 • September 2006 • Novmeber 2006 • March 2007 • January 2008 • Super Tuesday (2008)