F2 tornado, Walnut Grove, Mississippi, February 21, 1997

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 21, 1997

Touchdown

4:10 AM CST (10:10 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.5 million

County

Leake County

Touchdown point

32.570, -89.480

Lift-off point

32.580, -89.470

Record number

647

The tornado touched down 2 miles southwest of the Midway community. As the tornado tracked northeast through the community of Midway, it destroyed three mobile homes and caused significant roof damage to two residences. In addition the Midway Community Center was nearly totally destroyed. Just to the northeast of Midway the tornado uprooted or snapped off 75 to 100 trees and a house was significantly damaged. Another older house was totally destroyed. The tornado continued to move northeast and it lifted in the town of Walnut Grove. Damage in Walnut Grove consisted of several houses having some roof damage and several large trees being uprooted. Just southwest of Walnut Grove, six chicken houses were destroyed. One injury was reported in the Midway community.

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

24 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:46 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:30 UTC.

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 05:42 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 live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

8 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.