F1 tornado, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, March 12, 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 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.

Rating

F1

Date

March 12, 2001

Touchdown

10:04 AM CST (16:04 UTC)

Path length

7.0 miles (11.3 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

5

Property damage

$6.0 million

County

Forrest County

Touchdown point

31.320, -89.320

Lift-off point

31.350, -89.230

Record number

640

A supercell thunderstorm produced a tornado that moved out of Walthall County into Marion County, about two miles west of Kokomo. The tornado traveled five miles to a point three miles eastnortheast of Kokomo. The next tornado touched down about two miles east of Columbia and traveled six miles to a point seven miles eastnortheast of Columbia. The next tornado touched down nine miles eastnortheast of Columbia and traveled into Lamar County to a point four miles northeast of Oak Grove. The final tornado produced by the supercell in the Jackson NWS County Warning Area touched down in the northwest part of the city of Hattiesburg and traveled across northern sections of Hattiesburg and then across the city of Petal. This tornado lifted about two miles east of Petal. Damage reports in Marion County are somewhat difficult to estimate because an earlier tornado affected portions of the county, and the severe thunderstorm that produced the first tornado in the county caused damage in the city of Columbia before the second tornadic storm moved into the county. Damage to homes in Marion County from the tornado is estimated at $700,000 with other damage in the county listed under separate storms. The total damage from the tornado in Lamar County is estimated to have been around $4.5 million. In Lamar County, the tornado destroyed five houses, 24 mobile homes, one business, and 17 farms. The tornado caused major damage to 33 houses, 30 mobile homes, one church, two businesses, and seven farms. Minor damage occurred to approximately 30 mobile homes, eight apartment units, one church, two businesses, and a farm. The total damage from the tornado in Forrest County was estimated to be around $6 million. In Forrest County, the tornado tracked through populated areas of Hattiesburg and Petal. The tornado caused major damage to 112 houses, one mobile home, eight businesses, and six vehicles. Additionally, the tornado caused minor damage to 223 houses, four mobile homes, and 21 businesses. Despite the widespread damage across three counties, no serious injuries were reported in the storms.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:46 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:30 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 13:20 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 2001 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.