1932 Deep South tornado outbreak
| Type | Tornado outbreak |
|---|---|
| Duration | March 21–22, 1932 |
| Tornadoes confirmed | ≥ 36 |
| Max rating1 | F4 tornado |
| Duration of tornado outbreak2 | ~13 hours |
| Damage | ≥ $4.34 million (1932 USD; $72.9 million 2012 USD) |
| Casualties | > 330 fatalities, 2,141 injuries |
| Areas affected | Midwestern and Southern United States |
|
1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale 2Time from first tornado to last tornado |
|
| F4 tornado | |
|---|---|
| Max rating1 | F4 tornado |
| 1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale | |
| F4 tornado | |
|---|---|
| Max rating1 | F4 tornado |
| 1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale | |
1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale
The 1932 Deep South tornado outbreak was a deadly tornado outbreak that struck the Southern United States on March 21–22, 1932. At least 36 tornadoes—including 27 killers and several long-lived tornado families—struck the Deep South, killing more than 330 people and injuring 2,141. Tornadoes affected areas from Mississippi north to Illinois and east to South Carolina, but Alabama was hardest hit, with 268 fatalities; the outbreak is considered to be the deadliest ever in that U.S. state, and among the worst ever in the United States, trailing only the Tri-State Tornado outbreak in 1925, with 747 fatalities, and the Tupelo-Gainesville outbreak in 1936, with 454 fatalities. The 1932 outbreak produced 10 violent tornadoes, classified F4 or F5 on the Fujita scale of tornado intensity, eight of which occurred in Alabama alone, and is surpassed only by the March 1952 tornado outbreak, with 11 violent tornadoes; the 2011 Super Outbreak, with 15; the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak, with 17; and the 1974 Super Outbreak, with 30.
At 8 a.m. EST (7 a.m. CST/1200 UTC), a low pressure area of about 991 mb (29.26 inHg) was over eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas, with warm air moving north from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi Valley. Conditions in Alabama and Mississippi were mostly cloudy with early thunderstorm activity, yet temperatures were already in the low 70s and upper 60s°F in Mississippi and western Tennessee. By afternoon, temperatures rose to the middle to upper 70s°F across most of the area. As a cold front approached Alabama, forecasters predicted afternoon thunderstorms and an end to the warm temperatures but did not anticipate the magnitude of the severe weather that later hit most of the state from north of Montgomery to the Tennessee and Georgia borders.
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