View of Natchez by Henry Lewis, likely painted shortly before the Great Tornado
Meteorological history
Formed
May 7, 1840, 1:01 p.m. CST (UTC−06:00)
F5 tornado
on the Fujita scale
Overall effects
Fatalities
317+ fatalities, 109+ injured
Damage
$1.26 million ($38,460,000 in 2024 USD)[nb 1]
Areas affected
Louisiana and Mississippi, particularly in and near Vidalia and Natchez
The Great Natchez tornado hit Natchez, Mississippi, on Thursday, May 7, 1840. The tornado was the second-deadliest tornado in United States history; at least 317 people were killed and at least 109 were injured. While officially unrated, it is retrospectively estimated to have been an extremely violent F5 tornado on the Fujita scale. Its 35-mile-long (56 km), 1,000-yard-wide (910 m; 3,000 ft; 0.57 mi; 0.91 km) path was marked by severe damage and uncertain estimates of casualties, though many enslaved Africans—possibly numbering in the hundreds—reportedly died on plantations in Louisiana.[1]
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^Grazulis 2001b, p. 10.
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