2003 tornadoes in Mississippi

50 tornadoes touched down in Mississippi in 2003, 33 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2002 2004 The whole country in 2003

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 mph
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.

Every tornado in Mississippi in 2003

February 15 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
February 15	4:20 PM CST	F0	Rankin	1.0	50	$10,000
February 15	4:43 PM CST	F0	Smith	3.5	75	$20,000
February 15	5:25 PM CST	F1	Newton	2.0	75	$50,000

March 18 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 18	7:30 PM CST	F0	Claiborne	0.5	50			$10,000
March 18	11:40 PM CST	F0	Smith	0.5	100			$30,000

April 6 11 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
April 6	11:50 AM CDT	F0	Warren	0.7	25		$10,000
April 6	11:50 AM CDT	F0	Yazoo	0.3	25		$20,000
April 6	11:57 AM CDT	F0	Yazoo	4.0	50		$100,000
April 6	12:58 PM CDT	F0	Madison	0.3	25		$30,000
April 6	1:23 PM CDT	F0	Rankin	0.5	25		$50,000
April 6	3:00 PM CDT	F0	Newton	12.5	200		$800,000
April 6	5:39 PM CDT	F0	Humphreys	0.5	25		$30,000
April 6	7:15 PM CDT	F0	Madison	0.3	25		$30,000
April 6	7:30 PM CDT	F1	Hinds	5.0	100	2	$500,000
April 6	7:37 PM CDT	F2	Lincoln	11.0	1,230	6	$1.1 million
April 6	7:42 PM CDT	F1	Rankin	4.0	50		$300,000

April 7 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 7	3:08 PM CDT	F1	Pearl River	8.5	30			$100,000

April 24 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
April 24	4:06 PM CDT	F0	Pearl River	2.0	25		$2,000
April 24	5:40 PM CDT	F0	Hinds	1.0	30		$100,000
April 24	5:45 PM CDT	F0	Perry	0.1	20		$10,000
April 24	6:20 PM CDT	F0	Perry	0.1	20		$10,000
April 24	6:35 PM CDT	F0	Greene	0.1	20		$10,000
April 24	8:47 PM CDT	F0	Leake	0.3	25		$10,000
April 24	9:53 PM CDT	F3	Rankin	12.0	600	6	$50 million
April 24	10:40 PM CDT	F1	Kemper	6.0	50		$70,000

May 5 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 5	4:45 AM CDT	F0	Marshall	1.0	100	$30,000
May 5	7:55 AM CDT	F0	Benton	0.5	50	$1,000
May 5	8:15 AM CDT	F0	Tippah	0.5	50	$1,000
May 5	8:55 AM CDT	F0	Alcorn	0.5	50	$1,000
May 5	8:50 PM CDT	F0	Sunflower	0.3	30	$10,000

May 6 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 6	7:52 PM CDT	F0	Madison	1.0	30			$30,000
May 6	10:30 PM CDT	F2	Lee	1.0	100		2	$400,000

May 7 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 7	9:25 AM CDT	F2	Chickasaw	27.5	440	6	$3.0 million
May 7	3:20 PM CDT	F0	Scott	0.3	30		$10,000
May 7	3:45 PM CDT	F0	Newton	0.5	30		$30,000

May 17 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 17	12:40 PM CDT	F0	Lincoln	0.2	25	$10,000
May 17	4:30 PM CDT	F0	Kemper	0.3	25	$10,000
May 17	6:30 PM CDT	F1	Jones	1.0	75	$30,000
May 17	6:40 PM CDT	F1	Jasper	12.0	75	$70,000
May 17	7:25 PM CDT	F0	Wayne	0.1	20	$10,000

June 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 2	4:50 PM CDT	F0	Bolivar	0.3	50			$150,000

June 30 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 30	7:40 PM CDT	F0	Hancock	0.2	30			$1,000

August 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 12	12:15 PM CDT	F0	Hancock	0.2	20

November 18 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
November 18	5:35 AM CST	F1	Issaquena	5.0	150		$10,000
November 18	6:00 AM CST	F1	Sharkey	0.5	150		$20,000
November 18	8:26 AM CST	F1	Simpson	23.5	220	2	$600,000
November 18	10:15 AM CST	F0	Lauderdale	0.2	50		$1,000

November 27 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
November 27	4:11 AM CST	F1	Jefferson Davis	2.0	400	$10,000
November 27	4:40 AM CST	F0	Covington	4.5	100	$2,000
November 27	4:55 AM CST	F1	Jones	3.0	200	$10,000

Crossed into Mississippi

Tornadoes that touched down in a neighboring state and ran into Mississippi. They are counted under the state they began in.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 24	4:00 PM CDT	F1	Washington Parish, LA to MS	22.0	30			$100,000

Nearby

Every tornado in Mississippi since 1950 Warnings in force in Mississippi The live radar over Mississippi

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.