National Weather Service (NWS) damage survey teams have confirmed the significant severe weather event from Tuesday into Wednesday as a major tornado outbreak.
While damage surveys continue, the NWS reported Thursday that at least 42 tornadoes had been confirmed across parts of 11 states including Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana.
This is at least the "third largest January tornado outbreak on record," according to Dr. Greg Forbes, severe weather expert with The Weather Channel.
The outbreak prompted the Storm Prediction Center to issue 20 tornado watches from Tuesday through early Thursday with 143 tornado warnings from the NWS.
Tennessee with 14 confirmed tornadoes and Kentucky with nine confirmed tornadoes were the hardest hit states.
The strongest tornado hit Adairsville, Ga, where the NWS says a powerful EF-3 tornado with winds up to 160 mph tore a path of 21.8 miles long across parts of Bartow and Gordon counties.
Along this tornado's extensive 900-yard-wide path, 95 structures were damaged in Bartow County. Of those, 31 were destroyed, 17 sustained major damage, and 47 had minor damage.
In Gordon County, at least 268 homes, including 66 mobile homes, were impacted. Of the 202 site-built homes, 30 were completely destroyed, 110 had major damage, and 70 sustained minor damage.
One person was killed and 17 others were injured in this tornado.
This was the first killer tornado in the United States since June 24, 2012, breaking a record-long streak of 220 days without a tornado fatality.
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