With at least 25 people dead in Mississippi, tornadoes that ravaged parts of the Deep South overnight were the deadliest in the state in more than a decade, according to National Weather Service records.
By comparison, 31 people died in Mississippi in April 2011 during tornadoes that tore through several states, mostly in the southeastern U.S., weather service meteorologist Chris Outler said Saturday. Alabama was hit hardest during that so-called “super outbreak” of hundreds of twisters that killed more than 320 people and caused an estimated $12 billion in damage.
Just a month later, another deadly twister ripped through Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people. Outler, in Las Vegas, called 2011 “the headline year for tornadoes for the last 20 years or so."
The sheriff's office in Morgan County, Alabama, reported one storm-related death on Saturday, bringing the overall total during overnight storms to at least 26.
Records show that 12 people died in Mississippi during Easter storms in April 2020, and 10 died in the state during a tornado event in April 2014.
National Weather Service records tally these deadly U.S. tornado events since 2012. Many were covered by The Associated Press:
2022: 23 killed in 14 deadly tornado events, including seven killed on March 5 in and around Winterset, Iowa.
2021: 103 killed in nine deadly tornado events, including a Dec. 10 outbreak in Kentucky and Illinois that authorities said left at least 88 people dead.
2020: 76 killed in 24 deadly tornado events, including 12 dead in Mississippi during Easter storms that swept from Texas to the Carolinas, killing more than 30 people.
2019: 41 killed in 12 deadly tornado events, including 23 people in a March 3 storm in and around rural Beauregard, Alabama.
2018: 10 killed in 9 deadly tornado events, including two people on Nov. 2 in Baltimore County, Maryland.
2017: 35 killed in 14 deadly tornado events. Authorities in Georgia reported that at least 20 people died during twisters and thunderstorms in January in the Southeast. In Mississippi, four people died during a Jan. 21 tornado, the weather service said.
2016: 18 killed in 10 deadly tornado events, including three in a Feb. 24 storm in Virginia and three in a Nov. 30 storm in Alabama.
2015: 36 killed in 13 deadly tornado events, including storms in December that left 10 dead in the Dallas area and nine dead in Mississippi.
2014: 47 killed in 14 deadly tornado events, including 10 dead in Mississippi during a swarm of tornadoes in late April 2014 that also killed 16 people in Arkansas.
2013: 55 killed in 14 deadly tornado events. Authorities reported at least 51 died in a May 20 twister that tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, Oklahoma.
2012: 68 killed in 22 deadly tornado events, including 11 during a March 2 storm that struck the Indiana towns of Henryville and Marysville.