Nearly 50 years after an F4 tornado from the infamous Super Outbreak devastated Downtown Jasper, the clocks on the historic ...

Of the seven top/major tornado outbreaks on record in the U.S., the state of Indiana has been in three of them. This is an IMPORTANT DATE. 51 years ago today the 1974 Super Outbreak began.

Map of U.S. impacted by tornadoes in the tornado Super Outbreak of 1974 with 148 tornado tracks plotted from April 3–4, 1974. Image courtesy of NOAA Natural Disaster Survey Report.

This super outbreak further revealed the nation's network of radars, warnings and tornado safety needed to be updated, as we detailed in a previous piece.

Tornado damage from the Super Outbreak of 1974. While Wednesday’s weather event isn’t projected to be as devastating as the Super Outbreak, there is a still a high concern for severe weather.

Since 1950, the only other tornado to receive that high a rating in Jefferson County was an F4 during the April 3, 1974, Super Outbreak.

The death toll from the Alabama outbreak topped that of the 1974 super outbreak in the Ohio River Valley, and more than 100 are confirmed dead in Joplin.

There are at least 19 tornado memorials in Alabama, more than triple the number erected before the April 27, 2011, outbreak. They honor the more than 680 people killed since 1950.

In the nation's long history of tornado outbreaks, two of them stand atop all others as super outbreaks. One of these happened on April 3, 1974, 51 years ago today.