On February 19–20, 1884, one of the largest and most widespread tornado outbreaks in American history occurred over the Southeastern United States. Known as the Enigma tornado outbreak due to the unknown number of total tornadoes, the outbreak produced the largest 24-hour total of killer tornadoes until the 1974 Super Outbreak on April 3–4. The precise number of tornadoes as well as fatalities incurred during the outbreak is unknown, but the death toll was variously estimated to range from 370 to 2,000 at the time. A reliable survey by the Signal Corps in 1889 located 182 fatalities, and a reanalysis by tornado researcher Thomas P. Grazulis in 1993 counted 178 deaths. Nonetheless, an inspection of newspaper reports and governmental studies published in the aftermath reveals successive, long-tracked tornado families striking Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, with an estimation of at least 37 tornadoes. Some events counted as tornadoes in initial studies such as those by John Park Finley were likely downbursts, especially in northern and northeastern portions of the outbreak.

The majority of reported tornado activity was seen across Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, which were all struck severely by multiple waves of tornado families. In the Southeast, the outbreak began during the late morning in Mississippi, preceded by severe thunderstorms in Louisiana. Shortly thereafter, the outbreak widened and intensified, progressing from Alabama to Virginia between noon and midnight. According to an article appearing in the Statesville (NC) Landmark three days later, the damage tally in Georgia alone was estimated to be $1 million, in 1884 dollars. The outbreak also produced the deadliest individual tornado in North Carolina history, an F4 which swept through the Rockingham area, killing 23. Tabulations from 1884 estimate a total of $3–4 million in tornado damage (with an unknown amount of flood and other damage), with 10,000 structures destroyed.

Elsewhere, wind damage, flash floods and derecho-like effects were also reported in published accounts of the outbreak. Homes were swept away by water in Louisville, Kentucky, New Albany, Indiana, and Jeffersonville, Indiana, as well as in other towns along the Ohio River. Blizzard conditions occurred in the eastern Midwest.