After 3 weeks of severe weather, the storm-worn South is facing another active weather week
Nearly 160 tornadoes in three weeks of springtime storms
Extreme weather videographer captures tornado near Cordele, GA
Brandon Copic, Executive Director of ChaserWx Disaster Relief, talks about the video he shot of a tornado near Cordele, GA.
The past three weeks have been a trying time for people across the southern United States after several multiday severe weather outbreaks brought death and destruction to the region.
Throughout late March and early April, Mother Nature has produced a dangerous round of weather bingo churning out tornadoes, damaging hail, intense lightning and flooding rains.
So far, the NOAA Storm Prediction Center has preliminarily identified 187 tornadoes during the month of March. Compared to years past, the amount is close to the 191 tornadoes recorded in March 2021 but is much larger than the 127 twisters the month averages.
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The tornado tally from March 21-23, 2022.
(FOX Weather)
Tornadoes rip through New Orleans
Tornado recovery efforts in New Orleans kick into high gear
Recovery efforts are underway after the three-day tornado outbreak that ravaged communities across the South. The strongest twister hit the New Orleans suburb of Arabi. The National Weather Service said the tornado was packing peak winds of 160 mph. FOX Weather's Mitti Hicks is in Arabi with the latest.
From March 21 to March 23 the Storm Prediction Center tallied 71 tornadoes that started with an outbreak in Texas and Oklahoma. As the severe system moved east tornadoes were also reported in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Perhaps the most notable twisters from this round of weather were an EF-3 tornado with 160 mph winds that ripped through a New Orleans neighborhood. The tornado has tied with a 2017 twister as the strongest on record for the city.
The March 21-23 system has been blamed for two deaths and dozens of injuries.
Severe storms have been blamed for more than two-dozen injuries and at least two deaths, one in Grayson County, Texas, on Monday and a second in the New Orleans area on Tuesday after an EF-3 tornado tore through a part of the city.
500 severe weather reports
EF-2 tornado ripped through Arkansas on Wednesday
An EF-2 tornado ripped through parts of Arkansas on Wednesday.
With less than a week of recovery from the first round of storms, the Plains and the South were back in the eyes of the storm for the last week of March.
A massive storm system spread its wrath across much of the U.S. leaving a trail of damage across several states, spawning almost 500 reports of severe weather.
What started as a snow event in the Rockies turned into severe thunderstorms as the system moved into the Plains late Tuesday. An EF-3 tornado touched down in Springdale, Arkansas, Wednesday morning, injuring seven people -- two seriously.
A severe weather system from March 29 to March 31 spawned 88 tornadoes.
(FOX Weather)
The storm line intensified further as it approached the Mississippi River, stretching over 1,300 miles across at one point. As the thunder roared and wind raged, several hundred reports of storm damage from 50-65 mph gusts flowed into National Weather Service offices, touching every corner of Mississippi and stretching into Tennessee, Kentucky and even southern Illinois and Indiana.
As of the last count, NWS survey teams have confirmed 88 tornadoes.
Entering April with more severe weather
Severe storms leave path of destruction in Georgia, state of emergency declared
FOX Weather correspondent Nicole Valdes shows the storm damage at a church in Macon. Gov. Brian Kemp has issued a state of emergency after tornadic storms ripped through Georgia.
The latest round of weather damage started Monday across North Texas and Oklahoma before moving into the Deep South and Southeast on Tuesday, where areas from Mississippi to South Carolina saw more than three-dozen reports of tornadoes.
Two deaths have been connected to the severe weather outbreak.
One person was killed in Whitehouse, Texas, late Monday night when severe weather moved through the area with strong winds that knocked down trees and power lines across the region. The National Weather Service reported one person was killed during a tornado in Pembroke, Georgia.
Looking ahead to the second week of April, the storm-worn Plains and the South are looking at another potential springtime weather pattern that could spawn severe storms and produce a snowstorm to the west.