Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2003
F0 tornado, Polkville, Mississippi, March 18, 2003
This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Smith County on March 18, 2003, touching down at 11:40 PM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
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.
The record
- Rating
- F0
- Date
- March 18, 2003
- Touchdown
- 11:40 PM CST (05:40 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $30,000
- County
- Smith County
- Touchdown point
- 32.280, -89.580
- Lift-off point
- 32.280, -89.580
- Record number
- 700
What the Weather Service recorded
A tornado touched down 9 miles NE of Polkville and tore the tin roofs off of 4 chicken houses. Numerous trees were snapped and knocked down.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05:45 UTC | 06:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAN |
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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:53 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.
Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z
5.7 hours before the tornado, 47 km from the path. March 19, 2003.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 209 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -77 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 181 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 936 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 55 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 121 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 166 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.2 K/km
Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z
6.3 hours after it, 47 km from the path. March 19, 2003.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -77294 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 340 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1501 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 93 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -103 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 72 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.2 K/km
The surface observations
Jackson/Thompson (JAN), 47 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03:49 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 180° 7 kt | 997.3 | TSRA | |
| 03:54 UTC | 65 | 62 | 170° 8 kt | 997 | +TSRA BR | |
| 04:14 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 290° 8 kt | 997.6 | +TSRA BR | |
| 04:19 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 230° 7 kt | 16 | 998.3 | +TSRA BR |
| 04:39 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 180° 6 kt | 17 | 997.6 | +TSRA BR |
| 04:44 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 180° 5 kt | 997.6 | -TSRA BR | |
| 04:54 UTC | 62 | 60 | 6 kt | 997.6 | -TSRA | |
| 05:07 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 190° 7 kt | 997.6 | RA | |
| 05:29 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 190° 8 kt | 998 | -RA | |
| 05:54 UTC | 62 | 61 | 180° 6 kt | 998 | -RA | |
| 06:08 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 190° 6 kt | 997.6 | ||
| 06:26 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 190° 5 kt | 997.3 | ||
| 06:54 UTC | 62 | 61 | 210° 4 kt | 997.6 | ||
| 07:08 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 240° 10 kt | 999 | ||
| 07:30 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 250° 7 kt | 19 | 999 | |
| 07:36 UTC | 60.8 | 59 | 4 kt | 999 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2003 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 18, 2003
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 18 | 11:45 AM CST | F0 | Montgomery, TX | 0.5 | 20 | $2,000 | ||
| March 18 | 5:20 PM CST | F0 | Avoyelles Parish, LA | 1.0 | 10 | $2,000 | ||
| March 18 | 5:33 PM CST | F0 | Catahoula Parish, LA | 5.0 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| March 18 | 5:55 PM CST | F0 | Concordia Parish, LA | 1.5 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| March 18 | 7:30 PM CST | F0 | Claiborne, MS | 0.5 | 50 | $10,000 |
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.