Meanings
plural super outbreaks
- climatologyA large tornado outbreak involving more than fifty tornadoes within a 24-hour period.
The tornado Super Outbreak of 2011 was the largest in US history. From April 26 to April 28, more than 300 tornadoes spun across the eastern United States.
2012, Kristen Rajczak, Terrifying Tornadoes, page 222 more examples
Cycloidal ground marks were replete in the super-outbreak. Figure 3.35 illustrates the small cycloidal swaths of the Anchor, Illinois, tornado and the giant cycloidal swaths of the Homer Lake, Indiana, tornado.
1983, Robert F. Abbey Jr., T. Theodore Fujita, “Tornadoes: The Tornado Outbreak of 3-4 April 1974”, in Edwin Kessler, editor, The Thunderstorm in Human Affairs, page 62In the following months, careful analysis of all the damage led Dr. Fujita and other experts to determine that the Xenia tornado was in fact the worst of all the 148 Super Outbreak tornadoes.
2024 November 11 (last accessed), “The Super Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974”, in [US] National Weather Service, archived from the original on 03 Jan 2024
Origin
From super + outbreak (“tornado outbreak”). Coined by Dr. Tetsuya Theordore "Ted" Fujita in 1974, after a then-recent outbreak of tornadoes that was the largest known to have occurred.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
super outbreak. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/super%20outbreak
“super outbreak.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/super%20outbreak. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “super outbreak,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/super%20outbreak.
Source: super outbreak on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.