F3 tornado, Bruce to Corrona, Mississippi, February 24, 2001

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

F3

Date

February 24, 2001

Touchdown

9:35 PM CST (03:35 UTC)

Path length

52.0 miles (83.7 km)

Path width

1,000 yards (914 m)

Deaths

6

Injuries

73

Property damage

$31 million

Counties

Calhoun, Pontotoc, Union and Lee counties

Touchdown point

34.030, -89.350

Lift-off point

34.580, -88.600

Record number

592

The tornado began in rural Calhoun county and tracked northeast moving into Pontotoc county near Matthews.

The tornado continued in Pontotoc moving in near Robbs and tracking northeast through the county. The tornado moved through the entire county eventually moving into extreme southeast Union county near the town of Blue Springs. The tornado produced much of its damage between Algona and Pontotoc. At least 360 homes, 15 businesses and 2 churches were damaged or destroyed in Pontotoc. Among the homes destroyed was a restored antebellum plantation home listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Numerous trees and power lines were blown down.

The continued into Lee county from Union county and tracked northeast producing damage in Baldwyn. The tornado then moved out of Lee county into Prentiss county. In Guntown, eight homes and 1 business were heavily damaged while 13 other structures were damaged. In Saltillo, a mobile homes overturned. The tornado did significant damage in Baldwyn, which is located on the Lee/Prentiss county line. Nearly 100 homes were damaged or destroyed including the Baldwyn High School which lost the roof to its gymnasium.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:12 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 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 00:56 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.

Tupelo (TUP), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

20 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.