JEFFERSON DAVIS COUNTY, Ms. – The same storm system that dumped 2-5″ of rain on our area earlier this week dropped more than 100 tornadoes across the Southeast between Easter Sunday and last Monday. Perhaps the strongest and the worst of the 105 twisters was one that started near Bassfield, Mississippi on Easter Sunday.
Storm surveys take a while to complete, especially when the damage is as expansive as the EF-4 tornado that we’re referencing. On Thursday, the National Weather Service in Jackson, Mississippi confirmed that the maximum width of this tornado was 2.25 miles.
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In a tweet, they added that this was enough to become the third-widest tornado on record in the United States. It was on the ground for nearly 70 miles, taking the lives of 8 people in the process.
Of note, at 2 1/4 miles wide the Bassfield EF4 tornado now stands as the widest tornado on record in the state of Mississippi and the third widest tornado on record in the United States.
— NWS Jackson MS (@NWSJacksonMS) April 16, 2020
The widest tornado on record was a devastating EF-5 in El Reno, Oklahoma. The monstrous storm was about 2.6 miles in May of 2013. The second-widest happened in 2004 in the town of Hallam, Nebraska.