The parent supercell that produced the two EF4 tornadoes later became known as the "Quad-State supercell". However, storm surveys found that the path was predominantly composed of two distinct EF4 tornadoes, with the portion of the path between them over northwestern Obion County, Tennessee being from three separate, weak tornadoes. If it had been a single tornado, it would have surpassed the March 18, 1925, tornado event (which carved a 219-mile path across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana) in terms of path length. Įarly estimates suggested that the tornado family-identified by some media outlets as the "Quad-State tornado," due to the storm's similar characteristics to the Tri-State tornado that occurred 96 years prior-may have cut a path of up to 250 miles (400 km) across the affected areas. After crossing the Mississippi River into northwestern West Tennessee, that tornado dissipated, and a high-end EF4 tornado formed and moved through Western Kentucky, where the towns of Cayce, Mayfield, Benton, Princeton, Dawson Springs, and Bremen suffered severe to catastrophic damage. The first of these nocturnal tornadoes, rated low-end EF4, touched down in northeastern Arkansas, near Jonesboro and tracked through the Missouri Bootheel, causing major damage in and near towns such as Monette and Leachville, Arkansas, and Hayti. The most prolific activity was caused by a long-track supercell thunderstorm that produced a family of strong tornadoes that traveled across four Mid-South states. External imageĪnimation of Tornado outbreak from December 11, 1:20 to 7:00 UTC Tornado activity began in northeastern Arkansas, before progressing into Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The event developed as a trough progressed eastward across the United States, interacting with an unseasonably moist and unstable environment across the Mississippi Valley. Part of the 2021–22 North American winter and tornado outbreaks of 2021ġ Most severe tornado damage see Enhanced Fujita scaleĢ Time from first tornado to last tornadoĪ deadly late-season tornado outbreak, the deadliest on record in December, produced catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities across portions of the Southern United States and Ohio Valley from the evening of December 10 to the early morning of December 11, 2021.