The king of a series of massive long-track tornadoes that clobbered the South this week may have traveled in excess of 220 miles across Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, carrying wind speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour, all of which could make it the most powerful tornado ever recorded in the US.
The only rival so far is the 1925 “Tri-State Tornado” that ripped through the upper Midwest on a 219 mile track, killing over 700 people. That tornado traveled at up to 73 miles per hour. Wednesday’s Tuscaloosa super tornado may not have reached those land speeds, but, taken in combination with up to a dozen other potential EF-5 tornadoes spawned from Wednesday’s storms, several aspects of the Tuscaloosa twister and the outbreak as a whole may be unprecedented.
Some 211 tornadoes were reported within a few hours’ span on Wednesday, including a series of so-called long-track twisters that raked across six states, killing at least 350.
Full story: South’s ‘super tornado’ outbreak may be worst ever in US history