Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2001
F1 tornado, Columbia to Oloh, Mississippi, March 12, 2001
From Columbia to Oloh, this F1 tornado ran 18.0 miles across Marion and Lamar counties on March 12, 2001, touching down at 9:38 AM CST and reaching 440 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 7, and did $4.5 million 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- 9:38 AM CST (15:38 UTC)
- Path length
- 18.0 miles (29.0 km)
- Path width
- 440 yards (402 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 7
- Property damage
- $4.5 million
- Counties
- Marion and Lamar counties
- Touchdown point
- 31.300, -89.700
- Lift-off point
- 31.320, -89.370
- Record number
- 639
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Jackson, MS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Mar 12, 3:15 AM CST, 6 hours 23 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Mar 12, 3:15 AM CST, 6 hours 23 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS 315 AM CST MON MAR 12 2001 VERY ACTIVE MORNING OVER MY CWFA WITH ELEVATED CONVECTION ALREADY DEVELOPING ALONG AND TO THE NORTH OF THE SURFACE-BASED WARM FRONT NOW OVER EXTREME SOUTHERN ZONES. DEW PTS INCREASING INTO THE 60S ALONG AND BEHIND THE WARM FRONT. SVR TSTORM WATCH 54 IN EFFECT THROUGH 12Z GENERALLY SOUTH OF I-20 CORRIDOR FOR HAIL/HIGH WINDS AS THIS IS WHERE STRONGEST ISENTROPIC LIFT/LLJ AND ASSOCIATED 850MB WAA IS SITUATED...ALONG WITH DRIER AIR IN MID LVLS IS PUNCHING IN ACROSS THE MS RIVER PER WATER VAPOR IMAGERY. WITH CONVECTION FIRING RAPIDLY...WILL BE FAIRLY BRIEF HERE. MODELS HAVE SOME MINOR DISCREPANCIES ON TIMING OF FAST WAVES IN SWLY FLOW ALOFT AHEAD OF UPPER TROUGH EXITING ONTO THE PLAINS. BUT THESE ARE MINOR AND A BLEND OF META/AVN LOOKS THE WAY TO GO HERE. LOOKING FOR A SQUALL LINE/LEWP TO MOVE INTO SE ZONES EARLY THIS MORNING AND WEAKEN AS MIXING OCCURS AFTER 12Z...BUT...OUTFLOW BOUNDARY AND POSSIBLY A PRE-FRONTAL TROUGH SHOULD EXIST OVER CENTRAL/SOUTHERN ZONES AFTERWARDS BEHIND WARM FRONT THAT SURGES NORTH THROUGH MY CWFA TODAY. DEEPENING SURFACE LOW OVER EASTERN KS TO MOVE INTO SE IA BY MIDDAY. BEST LIFT/DIVERGENCE ALOFT AND LOW LVL MOISTURE/INSTABILITY EXPECTED OVER MY SOUTHERN ZONES TODAY AS LEFT EXIT REGION OF 100-120KT SUB-TROPICAL JET SETS UP ACROSS THE LA/MS/AL GULF COAST. FEEL BEST CHANCE FOR SEVERE (DAMAGING WINDS AND HAIL) WILL BE OVER THE SOUTHERN HALF OF CWFA WHERE BEST CAPES (1500-2000 J/KG) WILL RESIDE THIS AFTERNOON...YET SEVERE STORM OR TWO OVER NORTH ZONES WILL NOT BE OUT OF THE QUESTION AS HIGH SHEAR AND CAPES NEARING 1000 J/KG WILL CONTINUE THROUGH AT LEAST MIDDAY OR SO (SEE SWODY1 FOR MORE DETAILS)...THEN 850 FLOW VEERS WEST HERE BY LATE AFTERNOON. COLD FRONT ENTERS NW ZONES LATE AFTERNOON...THEN EXITS SE ZONES SOMETIME AFTER 06Z TUESDAY. ONGOING FORECAST TODAY/THIS EVENING LOOKS PRETTY GOOD AND EXPECT TO ONLY MAKE MINOR MODIFICATIONS FOR SEVERE POTENTIAL/ETC. OTHERWISE....SURFACE HIGH PRESSURE MOVES IN LATE TONIGHT IN WAKE OF UPPER TROUGH LIFTING INTO THE GT LAKES. WNW FLOW TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT TO RESULT IN MOSTLY CLEAR AND NEAR SEASONAL CONDITIONS AS BEST 850 CAA SHIFTS EAST RATHER THAN SOUTH. FWC/MAV TEMPS CLOSE THROUGHOUT THE 48-60 HR PERIOD AND WILL STAY CLOSE. 24 HR QPF DISCUSSION...EXPECTED LOCAL 1-2 INCH AMOUNTS SOUTH/CENTRAL ZONES BY DAY/S END WITH A DECREASE TO 0.25/0.50 AREA AVERAGES UP IN THE NORTH. RAIN SHOULD END OVER THE SE CWFA BY 06-12Z TUESDAY. .EXTENDED...WEDNESDAY WILL BE SIMILAR TO TUESDAY (SEASONABLE AND DRY)...YET SHOULD SEE FLOW RETURN FROM THE SOUTH IN A HURRY AS NEXT SHORTWAVE TROUGH DEEPENS OVER TX AND MOVE ACROSS WED NIGHT INTO THURSDAY PER AVN...WITH NOGAPS SHOWING SIMILAR RESULTS. THE HEAVIEST QPF LOOKS TO EXIST OVER THE SOUTHERN HALF ONCE AGAIN. WILL MENTION RAIN CHANCES ENDING ON FRIDAY AS BOTH NOGAPS/AVN LIFT THE TROUGH OUT. IN BEHIND...IT WILL COOL DOWN AND DRY OUT INTO THE WEEKEND. WILL JUST MAKE A FEW MINOR TWEAKS TO CURRENT EXTENDED FOR FRIDAY. PRELIM NUMBERS... JAN 74/50/70|/42 +400 MEI 73/52/71/40 +500 .JAN... MS...NONE. LA...NONE. AR...NONE. 05/
In the hours before
Local storm report, Mar 12, 4:10 AM CST, 5 hours 28 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS
410 AM CST MON MAR 12 2001
TIME(CST) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....PARISH/COUNTY LOCATION....
0237 AM RICHLAND MS .75 INCH HAIL
03/12/01 RANKIN DIME HAIL REPORTED BY
RANKIN COUNTY EMA
0240 AM JACKSON MS 1.75 INCH HAIL
03/12/01 HINDS CHANNEL 16 TV REPORTED
GOLFBALL HAIL AT STATION
0245 AM RAYMOND MS 1 INCH HAIL
03/12/01 HINDS SHERIFFS OFFICE REPORTED
QUARTER SIZE HAIL
0250 AM JACKSON MS 1 INCH HAIL
03/12/01 HINDS QUARTER SIZE HAIL REPORTED
BY HINDS COUNTY EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT
0250 AM 1 E BRANDON MS .75 INCH HAIL
03/12/01 RANKIN DIME SIZE HAIL REPORTED BY
PUBLIC
0255 AM JACKSON MS .75 INCH HAIL
03/12/01 HINDS DIME HAIL REPORTED BY HAM
ON COOPER ROAD
0307 AM MADISON MS .75 INCH HAIL
03/12/01 MADISON DIME HAIL REPORTED BY NWS
EMPLOYEE
0310 AM JACKSON MS 1.25 INCH HAIL
03/12/01 HINDS HAM REPORTED HALF DOLLAR
HAIL NEAR SPRING RIDGE AND
HWY 18Local storm report, Mar 12, 9:20 AM CST, 18 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS
920 AM CST MON MAR 12 2001
TIME(CST) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....PARISH/COUNTY LOCATION....
0715 AM WISNER LA WIND DAMAGE
03/12/01 FRANKLIN TREES AND POWER LINES
DOWN. REPORTED BY SO
0850 AM FOXWORTH MS 1 INCH HAIL
03/12/01 MARION QUARTER HAIL REPORTED BY
MARION EOC
0905 AM 15 S BROOKHAVEN MS WIND DAMAGE
03/12/01 LINCOLN MOBILE HOME ROOF BLOWN
OFF. TREES AND POWER LINES
DOWN. REPORTED BY LINCOLN
CO CD DIRECTOR.
0905 AM 5 NE HATTIESBURG MS WIND DAMAGE
03/12/01 FORREST ROOF BLOWN OFF OF HOUSE.
NUMEROUS TREES DOWN.
REPORTED BY FORREST CO
EOC.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
3.6 hours before the tornado, 119 km from the path. March 12, 2001.
- 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
The surface observations
Pine Belt Regional Awos (PIB), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
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.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 12 | 3:36 AM CST | F1 | Rusk, TX | 15.8 | 300 | $305 million | ||
| March 12 | 7:20 AM CST | F0 | Tangipahoa Parish, LA | 0.2 | 20 | $2,000 | ||
| March 12 | 8:32 AM CST | F1 | Marion, MS | 8.0 | 440 | $100,000 | ||
| March 12 | 9:10 AM CST | F0 | Tangipahoa Parish, LA | 0.3 | 20 | $30,000 | ||
| March 12 | 9:16 AM CST | F1 | Walthall, MS | 5.5 | 440 | $10,000 | ||
| March 12 | 9:30 AM CST | F1 | Marion, MS | 6.0 | 440 | $700,000 | ||
| March 12 | 10:04 AM CST | F1 | Forrest, MS | 7.0 | 440 | 5 | $6.0 million | |
| March 12 | 10:15 AM CST | F0 | Pearl River, MS | 0.2 | 20 | $30,000 | ||
| March 12 | 11:00 AM CST | F0 | Harrison, MS | 0.1 | 20 | $2,000 | ||
| March 12 | 11:10 AM CST | F0 | Harrison, MS | 0.2 | 20 | |||
| March 12 | 1:00 PM CST | F1 | Covington, AL | 3.2 | 75 | 2 | 1 | $1.0 million |
| March 12 | 5:15 PM EST | F1 | Miller, GA | 2.0 | 50 | 2 | $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.