Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Mississippi, March 20, 1980

Name: Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Mississippi, March 20, 1980
Start: 1980-03-20T14:45
End: 1980-03-20T16:03
Location: Mississippi

March 20, 1980 · 4 events in 3 counties and zones

2 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 1
Property damage: $275,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 4

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Event by event

2 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Sharkey

When: March 20, 2:45 PM CST
Where: Sharkey County
Rating: F1
Path length: 0.5 mi
Path width: 30 yd
Injuries: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $250,000
Coordinates: 33.030, -90.870

Thunderstorm Wind, Clay

When: March 20, 3:30 PM CST
Where: Clay County
Coordinates: 33.600, -88.680

Tornado, Clay

When: March 20, 3:45 PM CST
Where: Clay County
Rating: F1
Path length: 0.1 mi
Path width: 17 yd
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $25,000
Coordinates: 33.570, -88.500

Thunderstorm Wind, Calhoun

When: March 20, 4:03 PM CST
Where: Calhoun County
Coordinates: 34.180, -89.350

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Tornado, Clay	1980-03-20				Direct

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
Thunderstorm Wind: Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Mississippi in 1980 Every state in 1980 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Mississippi, 1980

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 10060606, 10060607, 10060608, 10060609.