January 2008 tornado outbreak

January 2008 tornado outbreak

EF3 tornado damage in Wheatland, Wisconsin.
Type	Tornado outbreak
Duration	January 7–11, 2008
Tornadoes confirmed	72 confirmed
Max rating1	EF3 tornado
Duration of tornado outbreak2	3 days, 11 hours, 48 minutes
Damage	$88 million (+ $41 million non–tornadic)
Areas affected	Central and Southern United States
1Most severe tornado damage; see Enhanced Fujita scale 2Time from first tornado to last tornado

¹Most severe tornado damage; see Enhanced Fujita scale

The January 2008 tornado outbreak was an unseasonably strong tornado outbreak that began on January 7, 2008 and continued for nearly four days, with the hardest hit area being southwestern Missouri, northwestern Arkansas, and the surrounding area. In addition, a strong supercell in northern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin produced that region's first January tornadoes since 1967.

More tornadoes occurred across the Mississippi Valley on January 8 and after a break in the activity on January 9, another round of severe weather took place in the Southern United States (primarily Alabama and Mississippi) on January 10. Several damaging tornadoes were reported that day, although no one was killed. In total, over the four-day period, 72 tornadoes were confirmed and four people were killed.

An unseasonably warm air mass was entrenched over much of central and eastern North America with record highs for much of the region. Several record high temperatures were broken across several states and Canadian provinces from January 7 to January 9 as temperatures rose into the 70s (21–25 °C) as far north as the Ohio Valley with dewpoints in the high 50s and low 60s (14–17 °C) providing additional fuel for storm development.

In addition, many areas near the Great Lakes region reached the mid to upper 60s (17–20 °C) which allowed the northern cells to form, while several areas in southern Ontario and Quebec near the Canada-US border reached near 60 °F (16 °C).

A strong low-pressure area over the central Great Lakes and its associated cold front combined with intense wind shear to provide a favorable environment for supercell development. Despite only moderate instability (which meant only a slight risk of severe weather was issued by the Storm Prediction Center, and only modest probabilities for severe weather at first), supercells developed throughout the day over much of the central US and continued throughout the evening and overnight hours, continuing into the morning of January 8. The hardest-hit area was in the Ozarks, around Springfield, Missouri, where nearly continuous supercells developed throughout the evening, resulting in numerous tornado touchdowns. In addition to the tornadoes, hail larger than baseballs and damaging straight-line downburst winds as strong as 100 mph (160 km/h) were reported. At least three people were killed in Missouri as a result of the tornadoes. Two of these deaths occurred near Marshfield and there were also six injuries.