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Hurricane Rita Tornado Outbreak

The photograph above shows an example of the destructive force released by Hurricane Rita. This tornado event is the largest in our CWA since records have been kept (1950). The only other event that comes close is Jan 21-22, 1999 when there were 35 tornadoes across the ARKLAMISS. This event had 51 tornadoes. As for tornado events occurring with tropical cyclones, Hurricane Andrew, Aug 26-27 1992, had 26 tornadoes.

The map below contains tracks of the known tornadoes during this event.

Below is an image of the 72 hour rainfall accumulation across the state and the JAN Forecast Area that occurred during this event.