This series has occurred earlier than the traditional peak season for tornadoes, which runs from April to June, when more than half of the year's tornadoes generally strike.
Weather systems are more conducive in these months. Warm air flows north from the Gulf of Mexico at the same time as storm systems are propelled into the south and mid-west by a southward dip in the jet stream.
These latest tornadoes appear to have carried the deadliest toll since 35 people were killed in Arkansas and Mississippi in April 2014.
A "super outbreak" of tornadoes across a swathe of the US in April 2011 killed more than 300 people.
- ۹۷/۱۲/۱۳