Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 1995

F1 tornado, Sharkey and Yazoo counties, Mississippi, April 22, 1995

This F1 tornado ran 8.0 miles across Sharkey and Yazoo counties on April 22, 1995, touching down at 5:30 AM CDT and reaching 200 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
April 22, 1995
Touchdown
5:30 AM CDT (10:30 UTC)
Path length
8.0 miles (12.9 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Sharkey and Yazoo counties
Touchdown point
32.900, -90.700
Lift-off point
32.800, -90.570
Record number
199

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado began in Sharkey County, 5 Southwest of Redrocck and moved through Delta National Forest. The tornado moved into Yazoo County at 0436 CST, and ended four miles southeast of Holly Bluff. The tornado damaged 20 to 35 acres of trees.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

15 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:15 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:38 UTC10:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN
10:15 UTC10:45 UTCTornado 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 08:06 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), 00:00Z

10.5 hours before the tornado, 79 km from the path. April 22, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 1995-04-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -42801, lifted condensation level 2058 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1995-04-22The 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 67 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-42801 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2058 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
133 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

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z

1.5 hours after it, 79 km from the path. April 22, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 1995-04-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1788 joules per kilogram, CIN -46, lifted condensation level 608 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 1995-04-22The 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 234 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
1788 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-46 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2182 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
608 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
234 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
238 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.3
Supercell composite
10.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 22, 1995

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 225:05 AM CDTF0East Carroll Parish, LA1.550
April 227:45 AM CDTF1Walker, AL1.560$50,000 to $500,000
April 222:30 PM CDTF0Ouachita Parish, LA0.130
April 222:45 PM CDTF0Ouachita Parish, LA0.110
April 225:00 PM CDTF0Pike, MS0.120
April 225:24 PM CDTF0De Soto Parish, LA0.130
April 226:05 PM CDTF0Baldwin, AL0.130
April 226:54 PM CDTF0Concordia Parish, LA0.130
April 226:54 PM CDTF0Natchitoches Parish, LA0.130
April 227:05 PM CDTF0Pike, MS5.020
April 227:10 PM CDTF0Hancock, MS0.120
April 227:25 PM CDTF0Lincoln, MS1.040$500 to $5,000
April 227:45 PM CDTF1Grant Parish, LA0.110

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.