1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS New Orleans, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 12, 9:00 AM CST, 2 hours 15 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS/BATON ROUGE LA 1000 AM CDT TUE AUG 12 2003 PREVIOUS FORECASTS AND REASONING REMAINS ON TRACK...HOWEVER...GRIDS WILL BE UPDATED TO FIT CURRENT RADAR AND TEMPERATURE TRENDS. MORNING POPS FOR MEASURABLE RAIN WILL BE NEAR 100 PERCENT OVER MOST OF THE FORECAST AREA EXCEPT THE FAR NORTH. AFTERNOON POPS OF 70 TO 80 PERCENT PER THE 06Z MAV GUIDANCE LOOKS ABOUT RIGHT. WILL EXPAND WORDING OF LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN TO THE NORTHERN ZONES SINCE BATON ROUGE IS CURRENTLY RECEIVING RAINFALL RATES OF 2 TO 3 INCHES IN ABOUT AN HOUR. AN URBAN AND SMALL STREAM FLOOD ADVISORY IS POSTED FOR EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH UNTIL 1130 AM. RIGHT NOW...AM ANTICIPATING MOST FLOOD PROBLEMS WILL BE URBAN AND SMALL STREAM AND NOT SERIOUS FLASH FLOODING...SO A FLOOD WATCH IS NOT ANTICIPATED. QPF AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES NORTH TO 2 TO 4 INCHES SOUTH STILL LOOKS GOOD AS SHOWN BY HPC DAY ONE QPF FORECAST. FOR TONIGHT...THERE IS UNCERTAINTY IN THE MODELS AS TO HOW MUCH RAIN WILL CARRY INTO THIS EVENING. IF THE LOW LEVEL JET DEVELOPS AS STRONG AND AS FAR WEST AS THE ETA INDICATES...THEN TONIGHT WILL BE QUITE WET. WILL GO AHEAD AND RAISE POPS TO LIKELY TONIGHT SOUTHEAST OF A LINE FROM MORGAN CITY TO POPLARVILLE INCLUDING THE NEW ORLEANS AREA AND THE MS GULF COAST. NEW MODEL DATA SUGGESTS WEDNESDAY WILL BE MUCH DRIER...BUT WILL EVALUATE ALL THE NEW DATA BEFORE LOWERING RAIN CHANCES. UPDATED GRIDS AND TEXT PRODUCTS WILL BE OUT SHORTLY. UPDATED NUMBER... MCB 79/69/85/71 8563 BTR 79/70/85/73 +563 MSY 79/73/85/75 +763 GPT 79/72/84/75 +763 .NEW...NONE LA...NONE. MS...NONE. 22
LAZ034>040-046>050-056>070-MSZ068>071-077-080>082-131130- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA 1115 AM CDT TUE AUG 12 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA AND EXTREME SOUTHWEST AND COASTAL MISSISSIPPI. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TODAY CONTINUING INTO TONIGHT WITH LOCALLY HEAVY RAINS...OCCASIONAL TO FREQUENT LIGHTNING AND GUSTY WINDS. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES ARE EXPECTED NORTH AND WEST OF LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN WITH 2 TO 3 INCH AMOUNTS EXPECTED SOUTH AND EAST OF LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. ISOLATED AMOUNTS OF 4 TO 5 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE. SOME FLOODING OF LOW LYING OR POORLY DRAINED AREAS WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY. NO ORGANIZED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT IS EXPECTED. HOWEVER... LOCALIZED HEAVY RAINFALL MAY PRODUCE ISOLATED AMOUNTS IN EXCESS OF 2 INCHES ON WEDNESDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... THE ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS...HAM RADIO OPERATORS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL...IN SUPPORT OF SEVERE WEATHER OPERATIONS...IS NOT REQUESTED AT THIS TIME. 22
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A waterspout developed just southeast of Bay St. Louis and moved onshore briefly as a weak tornado before dissipating. No significant damage was reported.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Mississippi in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Mississippi, 2003Warnings in Mississippi, August 2003
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: 5377101.