May 2004 Tornado Outbreak Sequence - Memorial Weekend Outbreak

Memorial Weekend Outbreak

The Memorial Day Weekend 2004 Tornado Outbreak was a significant widespread tornado outbreak lasted for two days from May 29–30 2004 with the final tornadoes occurring during the early morning hours of May 31. This tornado outbreak began in the Great Plains and continued throughout the Midwest. Activity on the 29th was limited from the Dakotas to Oklahoma while activity shifted towards the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Valleys on the 30th before ending across the Southeast early the following day.

The Storm Prediction Center had 199 tornado reports from the two days, but according to Storm Data archives from the NOAA, 168 tornadoes have been confirmed.

The 168 tornadoes occurred in 32 hours of continuous activity, which would not at all break the record held by the 1974 Super Outbreak, which saw 148 tornadoes in 18 hours. There was also a greater number of large and violent tornadoes in the Super Outbreak event. Most of the tornadoes were produced by supercells, though a few were produced by the following squall line. There were also widespread wind damage reports from a large squall line that moved through after the tornadoes. Damage totals from this outbreak are at $62.321 million.

The tornado outbreak killed at least 5 people across two states including 4 in Missouri and 1 in Indiana. 3 of the fatalities were caused by an F4 tornado that struck the Weatherby area in DeKalb County, Missouri late during the evening of May 29. Another person was killed in the St. Louis Metropolitan area while the fifth fatality was northwest of Louisville, Kentucky in the Marengo area where 80% of the town was damaged or destroyed.

In addition, an F2 tornado on May 30 affected portions of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area on the same day the Indianapolis 500 was taking place. The tornado missed the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by six miles and forced post-racing events to be held indoors. The tornado did however cause extensive damage across southern and eastern Marion County south of the downtown area. While 26 people were injured, over 700 structures were damaged by the storm.