Biggest Winter Tornado Outbreaks Since 1950

Here are some of our biggest tornado outbreaks between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox (roughly December 22-March 21).


February 25, 1956:  9 tornadoes struck central and southern Indiana, injuring 4 people.

March 6, 1956:  7 tornadoes struck northern Indiana with an additional tornado in southern Indiana.  1 person was killed and 35 were injured, mostly in Grant county where a F4 occurred.
 
February 10, 1959:  5 tornadoes hit central and southern Indiana, the strongest being F3 in Knox county.

March 6, 1961:  10 tornadoes occurred, injuring 8 people.

March 19, 1963:  4 tornadoes occurred with 3 of them being F2.  2 people were killed in Washington county.

March 12, 1976:  13 tornadoes struck mainly the northern half of the state, resulting in 2 fatalities and over 40 injuries.  This is the biggest winter tornado outbreak on record.

March 20, 1976:  Occurring barely a week after the March 12 outbreak, this event produced 8 tornadoes including a F4 in Tippecanoe county which tracked into Carroll county.  18 people were injured in all.

March 10, 1986:  8 tornadoes occurred, injuring 48 people.  Also, 1 person was killed in Hancock county.

January 7, 1989:  3 tornadoes struck southern Indiana, injuring 5 people.  One of them, rated F4, crossed from Illinois into Knox county.
 
January 29, 2008:  5 tornadoes touched down making it our biggest January tornado outbreak on record.
3 people were killed in 2 separate tornadoes, one of which affected parts of Knox/Gibson counties and the other in Clark county.

March 8, 2009:  5 tornadoes occurred including an EF3 in Lawrence county which caused 1 injury.