F1 tornado, Magee to Cohay, Mississippi, November 18, 2003

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

November 18, 2003

Touchdown

8:26 AM CST (14:26 UTC)

Path length

23.5 miles (37.8 km)

Path width

220 yards (201 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$600,000

Counties

Simpson and Smith counties

Touchdown point

31.820, -89.800

Lift-off point

32.030, -89.480

Record number

317

A weak tornado touched down 5 miles southwest of Magee and moved northeast through the City. As the tornado moved through Magee, it tore part of the roof off of Magee Elementary School. Along the tornado path, numerous trees were snapped and uprooted along with minor roof damage to a few homes. This tornado was on the ground for 10.5 miles before it moved into Simpson county, 4 miles west of Cohay, at 837 CST.

This tornado moved into Smith county from Simpson county at 837 CST. This tornado continued to move northeast and along its path it snapped and downed numerous trees and caused minor damage to 18 homes. As the tornado passed just south of Raleigh MS, a mobile home was destroyed. The tornado dissipated 3 miles east northeast of Raleigh MS.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:25 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:10 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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:59 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 2003 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

8 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.