Tornado Outbreak: 1,000 Warnings, 1,300 Reports

It was incredible to watch the warnings, reports, photos and videos come in live yesterday during my 11-hour shift at AccuWeather.com HQ. For a complete story on the tornado outbreak, see AccuWeather.com. As tornado surveys come out for the destroyed town of Henryville, Indiana and others this weekend, I'll add photos and lists of surveyed tornadoes.

A zoomed out and zoomed in radar loop are also shown on this page, with half-hourly increments. It was really crazy seeing dozens of mesocyclones and handfuls of hook echoes on the radar at the same time -- almost overwhelming for those of us trying to keep up with the storms.

Here are some of the stunning stats from yesterday's storms (please credit WeatherMatrix.AccuWeather.com if you use these).

Death Toll: 31 and rising*
States Affected: 15*
Total Warnings: 660
Area Covered: 38,000 sq. mi.
Tornado Warnings: 281
Severe Thunderstorm: 356
Lightning Strikes: 156,399
Total Spotter Rpts: 809
Tornado Reports: 95
Funnel Cloud: 51*
Wind Reports: 246
Hail Reports: 417

Yesterday will undoubtedly beat the single day March record for tornadoes (59), and may beat the average March number (74).

5-DAY TOTAL:
Death Toll: 43 and rising*
States Affected: 18*
Total Warnings: 1,034
Area Covered: 77,000 sq. mi.
Tornado Warnings: 411
Severe Thunderstorm: 575
Lightning Strikes: 330,116
Total Spotter Rpts: 1,291
Tornado Reports: 147
Funnel Cloud: 58*
Wind Reports: 548
Hail Reports: 538

Here's a look at the storms towering over the Midwest, causing great shadows:

The map below shows warnings for the 24 hours preceding 7 PM last night:

And here's the lightning strikes -- all 156,399 of them, from yesterday:

SPC numbers will fluctuate as duplicate reports are filtered out. *Death tolls WILL continue to rise today and tomorrow. States affected were ones that had spotter reports. Funnel clouds are not considered in SPC's spotter report count.

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