This page documents all tornadoes confirmed by various weather forecast offices of the National Weather Service in the United States for March 2023. Tornado counts are considered preliminary until final publication in the database of the National Centers for Environmental Information. Based on the 1991âÂÂ2020 average, about 80 tornadoes are recorded in March. These tornadoes are commonly focused across the Southern United States due to their proximity to the unstable airmass and warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as California in association with winter storms, although with the arrival of springtime the activity begins to shift northward especially later in the month.
After a moderately active start to the month, the middle portion of March was quiet in terms of tornadic activity. However, activity increased dramatically late in the month with two major outbreaks, each of which produced a violent tornado and many strong tornadoes. This was the fifth and final consecutive year to include a violent tornado in March, tying the record longest streak of five from 1963 to 1967. The outbreak on the last day of March, which continued into April 1, was especially large with 116 tornadoes, which represented just over 60% of the tornadoes from the entire month. March finished significantly above average as a result, with 197 confirmed tornadoes, making it the third most active March on record (behind 2022 and 2025). There were also 46 tornadic fatalities during the month, which was double the number of tornadic fatalities that occurred throughout all of 2022.