Family hit for 3rd time, 2 tornadoes crossed paths in mid-March outbreak
Two unusual tidbits emerged from the mid-March tornado outbreak, when it was determined that two of the tornadoes had crossed paths, and one street was hit for the second time in less than a year.
Residents from Talladega, Alabama, are surveying the damage after the weekend’s storms.
A tornado outbreak swept across 13 states Friday Mar. 14 into Sunday Mar. 16, 2025, with dozens of tornadoes responsible for at least 26 deaths and the destruction of countless homes and businesses. It was the deadliest tornado outbreak since March 31 - April 1, 2023, when 27 people were killed.
A couple of unusual tidbits emerged from the storm, when it was determined that two of the tornadoes had crossed paths, and one street was hit for the second time in less than a year.
Two tornadoes crossed paths in Mississippi
In Covington County, Mississippi, the National Weather Service office in Jackson, Mississippi says that two tornadoes crossed the same location within 41 minutes of each other that Saturday, just north of Spring Hill School road.
An aerial photo and illustration of the two tornadoes that crossed paths 41 minutes apart in Covington County, Mississippi on Mar. 15, 2024. Map faces Northeast. (NWS-Jackson)
The first tornado crossed at 1:39 p.m. CDT, carrying debris from upstream structural damage and carving a narrow path and turning eastward nearing its end point. That tornado had caused EF4 damage earlier in its 67-mile path from Louisiana. The second tornado hit at 2:20 p.m. CDT, cutting a wider path with tree damage maximized in taller, older trees.
In this velocity radar loop, the spot that was hit by both tornadoes is the red dot. Red next to green indicates tornadic rotation. (NWS-Jackson)
Homes hit twice in a year, Arkansas family's 3rd tornado
Incredibly, several homes in Paragould, Arkansas, were hit by a second tornado in less than a year. On May 27, 2024, several houses were severely damaged by an EF-2 tornado. On Saturday, another tornado hit the same street, damaging some of the same homes in Paragould.
CNN reports that it was one family's third tornado hit.
“What’s the chance something like this could happen again?” Misty Drope asked herself as Saturday's tornado approached. The family's house had been hit by the Memorial Day 2024 tornado outbreak. They barely had time to repair.
EF2 tornado tracks from May 27, 2024 (northwest to southeast) and March 15, 2025 (southwest to northeast) cross over Sandwedge Drive in Paragould, Arkansas. (NWS)
Incredibly, the same family's home was damaged by a tornado when they lived in Marmaduke, Arkansas in 2006, about 10 miles up the road.
Over 100 confirmed tornadoes, 3 EF4 and 11 EF3
A total of 115 tornadoes had been confirmed by the National Weather Service (NWS) as of April 8, including 12 EF3s and 3 EF4 tornadoes on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
Before storm surveys confirmed over 100 tornadoes, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) counted a total of over 100 tornado reports Friday through Sunday. Over 300 tornado warnings were issued by the NWS during the two days of storms, with warnings issued from areas near the Gulf Coast on north to Illinois and Indiana. A tornado near Currie, North Carolina and three tornadoes in Pennsylvania, all EF1s, were added to the tally on Sunday.
Three of the tornadoes were rated at least EF4 strength, according to the NWS in Little Rock, Arkansas. Two of those EF4s were in Arkansas, something that had not happened on one day in the state's history since 1997. One of the two EF4s was near Diaz in Jackson County, where massive damage was left behind.
Before this outbreak, the most recent EF4 tornado to hit the U.S. was a powerful twister that hit Greenfield, Iowa, on May 21, 2024.
A school bus in Alpine, Alabama was thrown onto a high school's roof by a likely tornado on March 15, 2025. (CNN)
Extreme winds damaged an even wider area
Beyond the tornadoes, high winds with storms caused hundreds of trees to fall, continuing the severe weather outbreak through Sunday in the Great Lakes states. Over 550,000 electric customers had their power knocked out amid the storms by Sunday evening. The NWS issued 641 severe thunderstorm warnings between Friday and Sunday.
Two children were killed by high winds on Sunday in Brevard, North Carolina, when a tree fell on a mobile home. An additional 16 people were killed by dust storms and related traffic accidents on Friday.
