2008 Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak

The 2008 Super Tuesday tornado outbreak was a deadly tornado outbreak which affected the Southern United States and the lower Ohio Valley on February 5 and 6, 2008. The event began on Super Tuesday, while 24 U.S. states were holding primary elections and caucuses to select the presidential candidates for the upcoming presidential election. Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee were among the affected regions in which primaries were being held. Some voting locations were forced to close early due to the approaching severe weather.

Eighty-seven tornadoes occurred over the course of the outbreak, which lasted over 15 hours from the afternoon of February 5 until the early morning of February 6. The storm system produced several destructive tornadoes in heavily populated areas, most notably in the Memphis metropolitan area, in Jackson, Tennessee, and the northeastern end of the Nashville metropolitan area. 57 people were killed across four states and 18 counties, with hundreds of others injured. The outbreak, at the time, was the deadliest in the era of modern NEXRAD doppler radar, which was fully implemented in 1997. The tornado outbreak was the second deadliest outbreak in February since 1950 behind the February 1971 Mississippi Valley tornado outbreak, which killed 123. It was also the deadliest outbreak in both Tennessee and Kentucky since the 1974 Super Outbreak. Damage from tornadoes was estimated at over $500 million (2008 USD).

The weather system which produced the tornadoes caused significant straight-line wind damage, hail as large as softballs – 4.5 inches (11 cm) in diameter – major flooding, significant freezing rain, and heavy snow across many areas of eastern North America. The total damage from the entire weather system exceeded $1 billion.