Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 1997

F0 tornado, Caledonia, Mississippi, May 2, 1997

This F0 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Lowndes County on May 2, 1997, touching down at 9:00 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
May 2, 1997
Touchdown
9:00 PM CDT (02:00 UTC)
Path length
5.0 miles (8.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Lowndes County
Touchdown point
33.680, -88.330
Lift-off point
33.680, -88.330
Record number
249

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down near the town of Caledonia. The only damage reported with the storm was several downed trees.

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

The warnings

20 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:40 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:40 UTC02:15 UTCTornado WarningMEG
03:00 UTC03:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
03:08 UTC03:40 UTCTornado WarningMEG
05:55 UTC06:25 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG

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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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.

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 00:00Z

2.0 hours before the tornado, 154 km from the path. May 3, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 1997-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1924 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 894 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 1997-05-03The 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 170 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
1924 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1346 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
894 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
170 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
279 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.0
Supercell composite
11.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z

10.0 hours after it, 154 km from the path. May 3, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 1997-05-03Temperature 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 -90498, lifted condensation level 1369 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, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 1997-05-03The 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 -90 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-90498 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1369 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-90 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 24 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:01 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.

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of May 2, 1997

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 24:45 PM CDTF1East Carroll Parish, LA13.0400$100,000
May 26:00 PM CDTF2Franklin, TN0.9150$60,000
May 26:30 PM CDTF3Holmes, MS20.0200$200,000
May 27:40 PM EDTF1Walker, GA10.010013$100,000
May 27:00 PM CDTF1Attala, MS3.050$10,000
May 28:50 PM CDTF0Carroll, MS1.040$1,000
May 29:25 PM CDTF0Leflore, MS1.040

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.