Abstract

On the night of 10 December 2021, a storm system ravaged the Southern United States and Ohio Valley with a series of historically damaging tornadoes, including two long-track tornadoes that, combined, traveled an astonishing 257 miles across four states. It did not take long for many to make a comparison between this storm and the record setting Tri-State Tornado system of 1925. In this comparative case study, synoptic and mesoscale data are compiled to determine the similarities between the two systems. In the days following the December disaster, damage assessments confirmed that the long-track tornado that led to the initial comparison was actually a series of five tornadoes, three of which were noticeably short and of low intensity. While this revelation may lead one to dismiss any further comparisons, recent studies discussed within this research paper suggest that this same situation may also have occurred in the 1925 system. Further similarities include the fact that both storm systems occurred in years with abnormally warm and humid winters, as well as strong evidence that a deepening upper-level trough led to surface conditions favorable for such tornadic storm systems. A comparison of observations from the 2021 system and recent reviews of the 1925 system leads to the conclusion that these storms were remarkably similar, despite several key differences discussed here.

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