Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 1969

F1 tornado, Tishomingo County, Mississippi, June 24, 1969

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Tishomingo County on June 24, 1969, touching down at 6:30 AM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 mph

    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
F1
Date
June 24, 1969
Touchdown
6:30 AM GMT-5 (11:30 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Tishomingo County
Touchdown point
34.820, -88.180
Record number
310

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.

Little Rock, AR (KLIT), 00:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 162 km from the path. June 24, 1969.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1969-06-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 233 joules per kilogram, CIN -363, lifted condensation level 1948 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, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1969-06-24The 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 124 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.193958Sfc1 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
233 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-363 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2161 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1948 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
70 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLIT), 12:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 162 km from the path. June 24, 1969.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1969-06-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 90 joules per kilogram, CIN -431, lifted condensation level 1126 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, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1969-06-24The 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 99 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.193958Sfc1 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
90 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-431 J/kg
Surface CAPE
58 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1126 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
377 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1969 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 24, 1969

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 242:50 AM GMT-5F1DeSoto, MS0.110
June 243:30 AM GMT-5F1Shelby, TN0.510$5,000 to $50,000
June 242:25 PM GMT-5F1Shelby, IL0.110$500 to $5,000
June 244:20 PM GMT-6F0Campbell, WY0.110
June 247:15 PM GMT-4F1Fairfield, OH0.150$500 to $5,000
June 246:30 PM GMT-6F2Perkins, NE9.920$50,000 to $500,000
June 248:15 PM GMT-5F3Trego, KS47.0700$5,000 to $50,000
June 2410:30 PM GMT-5F2Franklin, NE15.710$5,000 to $50,000

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.