March tornado deaths since 1950

We took a cursory look at March tornado deaths in the general overview of March tornadoes — there were 676 in total from 1950-2010. Much like February, major parts of the March overall total are from significant tornado outbreaks like those in 1952 (209 killed), 1984 (57 killed), and now also 2012 (~40 killed). Deaths from March tornadoes are not the norm, but they are not unusual either.

The median March value for the 61 years currently in the record is 2 deaths per year. A 20-year average ending in 2010 increases to 8.6 deaths — defined by outbreaks in 1994, among others. Though big fatality numbers are perhaps uncommon, years without tornado deaths are much fewer than February, with only about 20 percent (or 12 years) meeting that criteria compared to over half in the prior month.

As with February, significant tornadoes (F2/EF-2+) have caused 97 percent of all tornado fatalities during the month of March. Once past 5 fatalities in a tornado, all were significant in rating. The top-ranking tornado deaths from a single tornado in the month were all caused by F4/EF-4+ events.

Given that the strongest tornadoes tend to cause the most deaths, Arkansas — the home to more F4+ tornadoes than any other state in March — also leads the deadly March tornadoes list by a fairly wide margin. While southern states continue to dominate the lists heading into prime tornado season, northern states like Minnesota and Wisconsin have experienced deadly March tornadoes as well.

mar_deadly_torn_by_st — Note: Red portions of the graph are tornadoes that crossed a state line and hit somewhere else first. It should not be assumed that these tornadoes caused deaths in the state they are shown in, and are not counted in the overall count, but are meant to provide total data on where tornadoes impacted.

Note: Since tornado data for 2011 and beyond are not yet in the public database, they are not included in the main analysis. For referene purposes, SPC reports (as of 3/20/2012) 1 death from 1 killer tornado in March 2011 and 40 deaths from 9 killer tornadoes in 2012.

All images can be viewed larger by selecting. SPC tornado data obtained through the Tornado History Project. Get updates on U.S. Tornadoes on Twitter and Facebook.