Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 1971

F4 tornado, Warren, Yazoo and Holmes counties, Mississippi, February 21, 1971

This F4 tornado ran 65.2 miles across Warren, Yazoo and Holmes counties on February 21, 1971, touching down at 5:06 PM CST and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed 13 people and injured 182.

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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F4
Date
February 21, 1971
Touchdown
5:06 PM CST (23:06 UTC)
Path length
65.2 miles (104.9 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
13
Injuries
182
Counties
Warren, Yazoo and Holmes counties
Touchdown point
32.330, -90.730
Lift-off point
33.100, -90.100
Record number
68

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.

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z

11.1 hours before the tornado, 54 km from the path. February 21, 1971.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 1971-02-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1174 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 523 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, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 1971-02-21The 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 0 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 0 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1174 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
938 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
523 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z

0.9 hours after it, 54 km from the path. February 22, 1971.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 1971-02-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 708 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 976 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 1971-02-22The 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 0 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 0 knots.1939Sfc1 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
708 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1312 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
976 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1971 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 21, 1971

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 217:30 AM CSTF2McLennan, TX0.117$50,000 to $500,000
February 218:15 AM CSTF1Lee, TX0.310$50 to $500
February 212:50 PM CSTF5Inverness tornado, Louisiana and Mississippi109.250047510$5 million to $50 million
February 213:00 PM CSTF2Drew, AR17.1300$50,000 to $500,000
February 214:00 PM CSTF4Issaquena, MS to TN202.110058795$5,000 to $50,000
February 215:00 PM CSTF2St. Francis, AR4.6100$5,000 to $50,000
February 215:30 PM CSTF3Sunflower, MS8.6103
February 216:54 PM CSTF0Hinds, MS0.110
February 217:00 PM CSTF2Benton, MS0.110
February 217:10 PM CSTF1Rankin, MS0.110
February 217:35 PM CSTF0Rankin, MS0.110
February 218:30 PM CSTF2Pontotoc, MS0.110
February 219:35 PM CSTF2McNairy, TN1.56736$500,000 to $5 million

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.