The 1974 Super Outbreak spawned 148 tornadoes, the largest number of tornadoes ever produced by one storm system. Thirty of these tornadoes were classified as F4 or F5 on the Fujita-Pearson Scale. Before the 14-state rampage was finished, over 300 people lost their lives in 48 killer tornadoes.
On the morning of April 3, an area of low pressure was located in central Kansas. A warm front extended east northeastward through southern Illinois, western Kentucky, onto the Tennessee-Virginia border and southeastward to western North Carolina and off the Atlantic coast just north of Charleston. The cold front arched southeastward to southeastern Kansas, down through Arkansas just west of New Orleans and south into the Gulf of Mexico.
The forecast called for the storm to move northeastward into the upper Great Lakes, with a warm front up through New England. The cold front was predicted to move from eastern New York down through central North Carolina into southeastern Georgia, then south toward the Gulf from near Panama City on the Florida panhandle and into the Gulf of Mexico.
With the warm air in place and a cold front approaching, along with favorable upper air dynamics, intense thunderstorms developed rapidly in the afternoon of April 3. These thunderstorms spawned nearly 150 tornadoes before the day and night were over.
An astonishing six F5 tornadoes were spawned. An F5 tornado hit Guin, Alabama, destroying the entire town and killing 20. Fortunately for Huntsville, Alabama, the tornado lifted back into clouds just before reaching the city limits.
Nearly 30 people perished in Brandenburg, Kentucky when another F5 tornado touched down, leaving the town in ruins. Over 300 homes were destroyed and over 2,100 were damaged by an F5 in Xenia, Ohio, which killed 34.
