Great Storm of 1975

Date: January 9, 1975 • Location: Rockmart, United States

The Great Storm spawned the first of 45 tornadoes over a three-day period in the Southeastern United States.

The Great Storm of 1975 was an intense winter storm system that impacted a large portion of the Central and Southeast United States from January 9–12, 1975. A classic panhandle hook, the mid-latitude cyclone produced an outbreak of 45 tornadoes in the Southeast U.S. resulting in 12 fatalities, while later dropping over 2 feet (61 cm) of snow and killing 58 people in the Midwest. This storm, which caused blizzard conditions, remains one of the worst blizzards to ever strike parts of the Midwest, as well as one of the largest January tornado outbreaks on record in the United States.