Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 1989

F1 tornado, Amite County, Mississippi, May 18, 1989

This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Amite County on May 18, 1989, touching down at 5:15 PM CDT and reaching 40 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 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
May 18, 1989
Touchdown
5:15 PM CDT (22:15 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Amite County
Touchdown point
31.250, -90.620
Record number
297

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
00:18 UTC03:15 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 07:00 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

10.3 hours before the tornado, 129 km from the path. May 18, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 1989-05-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 176 joules per kilogram, CIN -52, lifted condensation level 603 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 1989-05-18The 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 61 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 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
176 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-52 J/kg
Surface CAPE
113 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
603 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 129 km from the path. May 19, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 1989-05-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 45 joules per kilogram, CIN -67, 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 00:00Z on 1989-05-19The 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 250 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 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
45 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-67 J/kg
Surface CAPE
229 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
588 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
250 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
386 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mccomb/Lewis Field (MCB), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC686890° 6 kt1014.2-SHRA FG
21:25 UTC90° 6 kt1013.2
22:00 UTC7574100° 7 kt1012.2TSRA FG
22:12 UTC340° 10 kt201013.2
23:00 UTC706840° 3 kt1012.5TSRA FG
23:12 UTC80° 5 kt1011.9
00:00 UTC7373220° 9 kt1013.2TSRA FG

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1989 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 18, 1989

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 1811:20 AM CDTF2Acadia Parish, LA1.0401$50,000 to $500,000
May 1811:27 AM CDTF1Lafayette Parish, LA0.430
May 1812:15 PM CDTF1Lafayette Parish, LA0.430$5,000 to $50,000
May 1812:20 PM CDTF1Rogers, OK3.21001$50,000 to $500,000
May 1812:20 PM CDTF1Calcasieu Parish, LA0.430
May 1812:40 PM CDTF0Mayes, OK0.310
May 1812:50 PM CDTF0Mayes, OK0.310
May 181:00 PM CDTF1Wagoner, OK2.750$50,000 to $500,000
May 182:30 PM CDTF1Lyon, KS0.530$50,000 to $500,000
May 182:35 PM CDTF0Clay, KS0.210
May 182:55 PM CDTF1Iberia Parish, LA0.3301$5,000 to $50,000
May 183:30 PM CDTF2East Feliciana Parish, LA5.050$50,000 to $500,000
May 186:00 PM CDTF1McDonald, MO0.530$50 to $500
May 186:20 PM CDTF0Saunders, NE0.130under $50
May 186:45 PM CDTF2Crawford, AR0.7120$50,000 to $500,000

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.