Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 1975

F2 tornado, Lowndes County, Mississippi, March 23, 1975

This F2 tornado ran 4.5 miles across Lowndes County on March 23, 1975, touching down at 12:00 AM CDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

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 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
March 23, 1975
Touchdown
12:00 AM CDT (05:00 UTC)
Path length
4.5 miles (7.2 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Lowndes County
Touchdown point
33.600, -88.330
Record number
150

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.

Centreville/Bibb, AL (KCKL), 00:00Z

5.0 hours before the tornado, 131 km from the path. March 24, 1975.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 00:00Z on 1975-03-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 334 joules per kilogram, CIN -51, lifted condensation level 1318 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, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 00:00Z on 1975-03-24The 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 152 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
334 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-51 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1211 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1318 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
152 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
289 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
5.5
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Centreville/Bibb, AL (KCKL), 12:00Z

7.0 hours after it, 131 km from the path. March 24, 1975.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 12:00Z on 1975-03-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 18 joules per kilogram, CIN -51, lifted condensation level 550 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 12:00Z on 1975-03-24The 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 -266 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
18 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-51 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
550 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-266 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-351 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Columbus Afb (CBM), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
03:00 UTC7663160° 15 kt1003
04:00 UTC7463180° 14 kt1002.4-SHRA
05:00 UTC6559250° 20 kt361002.7TSRA
06:00 UTC6558270° 6 kt1003.4TSRA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1975 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 23, 1975

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 234:10 PM CDTF0Wayne, IA0.110$500 to $5,000
March 237:50 PM CDTF1Richland Parish, LA0.533$5,000 to $50,000
March 238:18 PM CDTF2Knox, IL1.0802$5,000 to $50,000
March 238:30 PM CDTF2East Carroll Parish, LA0.150$50,000 to $500,000
March 2310:30 PM CDTF3Lee, MS17.2100$5,000 to $50,000
March 2312:00 AM CDTF1Lowndes, MS0.377$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.