F2 tornado, Richton to Avera, Mississippi, February 19, 1996

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.

Rating

F2

Date

February 19, 1996

Touchdown

2:20 PM CST (20:20 UTC)

Path length

18.0 miles (29.0 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

Property damage

$150,000

Counties

Greene and Wayne counties

Touchdown point

31.350, -88.850

Lift-off point

31.570, -88.580

Record number

33

NUMEROUS TREES WERE TOPPLED AND SEVERAL MOBILE HOMES WERE DAMAGED BY A TORNADO THAT FIRST TOUCHED DOWN IN THE NORTHWEST PART OF GREENE COUNTY. THE TORNADO FIRST TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT SIX MILES EAST OF RICHTON ON MS HWY 42 AT ABOUT 220 PM CDT. THE TORNADO THEN SKIPPED ALONG THE GROUND TO THE NORTHEAST AND MOVED INTO WAYNE COUNTY ALONG MS HWY 63. NUMEROUS TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN ALONG THE PATH OF THE TORNADO AND SEVERAL MOBILE HOMES WERE DAMAGED. FOUR PEOPLE IN ONE OF THE MOBILE HOMES WERE INJURED. THE TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND FOR ABOUT 5 MILES IN GREENE COUNTY.

A TORNADO MOVED OUT OF GREENE COUNTY INTO WAYNE COUNTY ABOUT 222 PM CDT 3 MILES WEST OF SMITHTOWN AND 1 MILE WEST OF MS HWY 63. THE TORNADO CROSSED MS HWY 63 AND THEN SKIPPED ALONG THE GROUND ACROSS MOSTLY OPEN FIELDS BEFORE LIFTING BACK INTO THE CLOUDS JUST EAST OF CHICORA. SEVERAL HOMES HAD ROOF AND SIDING DAMAGE AND NUMEROUS TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN BY THE TORNADO. THE TORNADO SKIPPED ALONG THE GROUND FOR ABOUT 13 MILES WHILE IT WAS IN WAYNE COUNTY.

A TORNADO THAT BEGAN IN PERRY COUNTY MOVED INTO GREENE COUNTY THREE MILES WEST OF PLEASANT HILL. THE TORNADO SKIPPED ALONG THE GROUND ACROSS MOSTLY OPEN PASTURE FOR ABOUT NINE MILES BEFORE LIFTING BACK INTO THE CLOUD JUST EAST OF STATE HIGHWAY 63, 3 MILES SOUTHEAST OF AVERA. THE TORNADO BLEW DOWN SEVERAL TREES ALONG ITS PATH AND ALSO DAMAGED THE ROOFS OF A COUPLE OF HOMES. NO INJURIES WERE REPORTED.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:32 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 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.

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:17 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.