Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 1973

F3 tornado, Copiah County, Mississippi, November 26, 1973

This F3 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Copiah County on November 26, 1973, touching down at 6:00 PM CST 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 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 26, 1973
Touchdown
6:00 PM CST (00:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Copiah County
Touchdown point
32.030, -90.380
Record number
1035

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), 00:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 43 km from the path. November 27, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 1973-11-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2146 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 763 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 00:00Z on 1973-11-27The 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 218 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
2146 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2537 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
763 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
218 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
290 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.7
Supercell composite
14.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z

12.0 hours after it, 43 km from the path. November 27, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 1973-11-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1111 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 588 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 1973-11-27The 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 243 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 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
1111 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
683 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
588 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
243 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
265 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.8
Supercell composite
7.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1973 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 26, 1973

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 266:15 AM CSTF1Calloway, KY0.6102$50,000 to $500,000
November 267:05 AM CSTF2Weakley, TN0.527$5,000 to $50,000
November 261:30 PM CSTF3Webster, MS54.4105$500,000 to $5 million
November 264:20 PM CSTF2Winston, AL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
November 264:38 PM CSTF1Lamar, AL0.110
November 265:45 PM CSTF1Overton, TN2.010$5,000 to $50,000
November 266:15 PM CSTF2Marion, AL5.4105$50,000 to $500,000
November 266:50 PM CSTF2Noxubee, MS0.110$500 to $5,000

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.