Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 1968

F3 tornado, Harrison County, Mississippi, November 3, 1968

This F3 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Harrison County on November 3, 1968, touching down at 3:25 PM GMT-6 and reaching 123 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mphthis tornado

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F3
Date
November 3, 1968
Touchdown
3:25 PM GMT-6 (21:25 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
123 yards (112 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
5
County
Harrison County
Touchdown point
30.370, -89.080
Record number
587

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Boothville, LA (KBVE), 12:00Z

9.4 hours before the tornado, 120 km from the path. November 3, 1968.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Boothville, LA at 12:00Z on 1968-11-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 222 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 739 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Boothville, LA at 12:00Z on 1968-11-03The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 119 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
222 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
23 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
739 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
119 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
116 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Boothville, LA (KBVE), 00:00Z

2.6 hours after it, 120 km from the path. November 4, 1968.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Boothville, LA at 00:00Z on 1968-11-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1677 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 663 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Boothville, LA at 00:00Z on 1968-11-04The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 161 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1677 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2309 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
663 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
161 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
212 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.5
Supercell composite
7.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Gulfport-Biloxi (GPT), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:00 UTC7467130° 12 kt
21:00 UTC7065140° 11 ktTS SHRA
22:00 UTC7070160° 15 ktSHRA
23:00 UTC7269190° 15 ktFU HZ

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1968 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 3, 1968

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 34:50 PM GMT-6F2Pearl River, MS43.51803$5,000 to $50,000
November 35:00 PM GMT-6F2Pearl River, MS2.0505
November 35:55 PM GMT-6F3Mobile, AL70.440018$50,000 to $500,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.