Recent Tornadoes




What follows is a listing, with short descriptions, of the killer tornadoes that have occurred this year, along with anecdotal accounts of several others. New tornado activity will be added at the top, but within an outbreak, the tornadoes are listed in chronological order. Killer tornadoes that have occurred in other places are listed under their own category. The US killer tornadoes in past years since 1995 and any photos and stories associated with them are now on the Past Tornadoes pages.


US Killer Tornadoes of 2008


February 5-6, 2008
As many as 50 tornadoes struck this day, and at least 11 separate killer tornadoes caused 58 deaths in 4 states. Tennessee was the hardest hit with 32 deaths; 13 died in Arkansas, 7 in Kentucky, and 6 in Alabama. Three fork lift operators were killed as a tornado cut a swath through warehouses, factories, 120 homes and a mall in southeast Memphis. Two died in Madison County homes. The tornado then destroyed 17 buildings on the Union University campus, injuring more than 50 students, many of them trapped in dormitories. The deadliest tornado hit Sumner and Macon counties in Tennessee, killing 23 people. Three died in Hardin County, and one died in Fayette County.
Six people were killed in Alabama. A home was leveled in Lawrence County, killing a couple and their teenage son. In Jackson County, one woman was killed as her home in Pisgah was destroyed.
Seven died in Kentucky. Four deaths were in Allen County. The storm may have been in the same family as the deadly Tennessee tornado. In Muhlenberg County, a couple and their daughter were killed in a mobile home.
There were thirteen deaths in six different Arkansas counties. A couple and their 11-year-old daughter died in Pope County. Other fatalities were in Conway, Izard, Baxter, Stone and Van Buren Counties.

January 29, 2008
An 83-year-old woman and her 57-year-old daughter were in their hilltop mobile home north of Poseyville, Indiana when it was destoyed by an EF-2 tornado. Both women died.

January 8, 2008
A 61-year-old man was killed and his wife injured as an EF-2 tornado blew apart their mobile homes near Appleton, in Pike County, Arkansas.
January 7, 2008
An EF-3 tornado passed through Greene and Webster Counties in southwest Missouri, passing north of Strafford and Marshfield. Near Strafford, an 85-year-old woman was killed when her frame home collapsed around her. Near Marshfield, two people died as a result of two mobile homes being destroyed. The first person was a 53-year-old woman. The second death occurred in a hospital, 3 weeks after the tornado, as a man died from severe injuries on his 100th birthday.

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