Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2004

F0 tornado, Yazoo County, Mississippi, April 29, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Yazoo County on April 29, 2004, touching down at 7:55 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    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
F0
Date
April 29, 2004
Touchdown
7:55 PM CDT (00:55 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Yazoo County
Touchdown point
32.880, -90.420
Lift-off point
32.880, -90.420
Record number
859

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

0.9 hours before the tornado, 70 km from the path. April 30, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2004-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 851 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 851 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, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2004-04-30The 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 109 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 knots.193958Sfc1 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
851 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
994 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
851 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
181 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
2.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z

11.1 hours after it, 70 km from the path. April 30, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 2004-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 623 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 538 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, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 2004-04-30The 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 79 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.193958Sfc1 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
623 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
444 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
538 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Jackson/Hawkins Field (HKS), 63 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:53 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 29, 2004

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 2912:05 PM CDTF1Claiborne Parish, LA7.075$30,000
April 2912:52 PM CDTF1Union, AR9.0150$200,000
April 291:58 PM CDTF0Calhoun, AR7.550
April 292:16 PM CDTF0Bradley, AR2.225
April 292:34 PM CDTF1Bradley, AR7.860
April 293:02 PM CDTF1Dallas, AR2.075
April 293:15 PM CDTF0Dallas, AR4.240
April 293:20 PM CDTF0Morehouse Parish, LA0.225
April 294:35 PM CDTF0Childress, TX0.250
April 297:43 PM CDTF0Claiborne, MS0.350$1,000
April 299:36 PM CDTF0Holmes, FL0.575$100,000

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.