Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 1988

F1 tornado, Simpson County, Mississippi, November 19, 1988

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Simpson County on November 19, 1988, touching down at 11:48 AM CST and reaching 43 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 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
November 19, 1988
Touchdown
11:48 AM CST (17:48 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
43 yards (39 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Simpson County
Touchdown point
31.830, -89.770
Record number
641

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:36 UTC18:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningJAN

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:20 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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

5.8 hours before the tornado, 62 km from the path. November 19, 1988.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 1988-11-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 154 joules per kilogram, CIN -36, lifted condensation level 594 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 1988-11-19The 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 245 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
154 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-36 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
594 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
245 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
268 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.8
0-3 km lapse rate
-2.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z

6.2 hours after it, 62 km from the path. November 20, 1988.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 1988-11-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1353 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 653 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 1988-11-20The 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 203 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 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
1353 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2354 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
653 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
203 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
230 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
8.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1988 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 19, 1988

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 198:10 AM CSTF1Amite, MS2.0120$50,000 to $500,000
November 1912:50 PM CSTF1Smith, TX0.210
November 191:28 PM CSTF1Marion, TX0.210
November 191:40 PM CSTF1Cass, TX0.210
November 191:51 PM CSTF1Angelina, TX0.210
November 191:55 PM CSTF1Newton, MS2.5123$5,000 to $50,000
November 193:19 PM CSTF1Webster Parish, LA0.210$50 to $500
November 194:08 PM CSTF0Natchitoches Parish, LA0.210
November 196:00 PM CSTF1Bolivar, MS0.340$500 to $5,000
November 196:10 PM CSTF1Bolivar, MS0.450$500 to $5,000
November 196:25 PM CSTF3Sunflower, MS4.01003$50,000 to $500,000
November 197:15 PM CSTF1Panola, MS1.050$5,000 to $50,000
November 197:45 PM CSTF1Coahoma, MS6.060$50,000 to $500,000
November 197:45 PM CSTF2Leake, MS12.0902$50,000 to $500,000
November 197:50 PM CSTF1Issaquena, MS1.550$5,000 to $50,000
November 199:00 PM CSTF2Madison, TN12.0901$50,000 to $500,000
November 199:20 PM CSTF2Carroll, MS7.0120$50,000 to $500,000
November 1910:15 PM CSTF3Lee, MS12.5120211$500,000 to $5 million
November 1910:30 PM CSTF1Pontotoc, MS0.230$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.