Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2001

F1 tornado, Kokomo to Columbia, Mississippi, March 12, 2001

From Kokomo to Columbia, this F1 tornado ran 6.0 miles across Marion County on March 12, 2001, touching down at 9:30 AM CST and reaching 440 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $700,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
March 12, 2001
Touchdown
9:30 AM CST (15:30 UTC)
Path length
6.0 miles (9.7 km)
Path width
440 yards (402 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$700,000
County
Marion County
Touchdown point
31.250, -89.800
Lift-off point
31.280, -89.720
Record number
638

The warnings

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:50 UTC10:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN
10:03 UTC10:45 UTCTornado WarningJAN
11:54 UTC12:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN
13:48 UTC14:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN
14:14 UTC14:45 UTCTornado WarningJAN
15:17 UTC15:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN
15:40 UTC16:15 UTCTornado WarningJAN

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 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 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.

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 12:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 113 km from the path. March 12, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2001-03-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1587 joules per kilogram, CIN -38, lifted condensation level 469 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2001-03-12The 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 367 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
1587 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-38 J/kg
Surface CAPE
645 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
469 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
367 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
453 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
4.1
Supercell composite
19.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 00:00Z

8.5 hours after it, 113 km from the path. March 13, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2001-03-13Temperature 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 -80024, lifted condensation level 1367 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, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2001-03-13The 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 -30 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 75 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
-80024 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1367 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
75 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Pine Belt Regional Awos (PIB), 46 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
13:35 UTC62.660.8140° 8 kt1008.8VCTS
13:55 UTC62.660.8160° 5 kt1008.8TS
14:15 UTC62.660.80° 0 kt1008.5VCTS
14:35 UTC62.660.8130° 5 kt1007.1TS
14:55 UTC62.662.6330° 5 kt1008.1TS
15:15 UTC64.462.660° 16 kt231005.8
15:35 UTC64.462.60° 0 kt1006.8TS
15:55 UTC64.462.6300° 12 kt251009.5TS
16:15 UTC60.857.2290° 8 kt171008.5TS
16:35 UTC62.659300° 9 kt211008.8TS
16:55 UTC62.657.2320° 7 kt151009.1TS
17:15 UTC62.657.2330° 9 kt1009.5VCTS

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of March 12, 2001

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 123:36 AM CSTF1Rusk, TX15.8300$305 million
March 127:20 AM CSTF0Tangipahoa Parish, LA0.220$2,000
March 128:32 AM CSTF1Marion, MS8.0440$100,000
March 129:10 AM CSTF0Tangipahoa Parish, LA0.320$30,000
March 129:16 AM CSTF1Walthall, MS5.5440$10,000
March 129:38 AM CSTF1Marion, MS18.04407$4.5 million
March 1210:04 AM CSTF1Forrest, MS7.04405$6.0 million
March 1210:15 AM CSTF0Pearl River, MS0.220$30,000
March 1211:00 AM CSTF0Harrison, MS0.120$2,000
March 1211:10 AM CSTF0Harrison, MS0.220
March 121:00 PM CSTF1Covington, AL3.27521$1.0 million
March 125:15 PM ESTF1Miller, GA2.0502$500,000

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.