Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2004

F1 tornado, Money, Mississippi, December 7, 2004

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Leflore County on December 7, 2004, touching down at 1:00 AM CST and reaching 70 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
December 7, 2004
Touchdown
1:00 AM CST (07:00 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
70 yards (64 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Leflore County
Touchdown point
33.650, -90.170
Lift-off point
33.670, -90.150
Record number
1143

What the Weather Service recorded

This tornado touched down east of Money in northeast Leflore county and was on the ground for 2 miles. While on the ground, numerous trees were uprooted and snapped as the tornado moved northeast.

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

The warnings

26 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:34 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:05 UTC06:45 UTCTornado WarningJAN
06:34 UTC07:15 UTCTornado WarningJAN

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 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.

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z

7.0 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. December 7, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2004-12-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 5 joules per kilogram, CIN -192, lifted condensation level 820 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, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2004-12-07The 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 238 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
5 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-192 J/kg
Surface CAPE
75 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
820 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
238 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
280 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z

5.0 hours after it, 132 km from the path. December 7, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2004-12-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 699 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2004-12-07The 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 -94 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
699 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-94 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-47 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Greenwood/Leflore (GWO), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
05:53 UTC7067170° 16 kt241006.8VCTS -RA
06:53 UTC7068180° 25 kt321004.7+TSRA BR
07:53 UTC6463270° 12 kt181007.8-RA
08:53 UTC6459210° 5 kt1008.1-RA

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

The radar

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 154 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:58 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 December 7, 2004

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 71:20 AM CSTF2Claiborne, MS26.0400$550,000
December 71:51 AM CSTF1Montgomery, MS7.2150$260,000
December 72:14 AM CSTF2Chickasaw, MS1.0100$70,000
December 72:30 AM CSTF0Oktibbeha, MS0.240$10,000
December 72:32 AM CSTF1Monroe, MS0.825$30,000
December 72:34 AM CSTF0Rankin, MS0.5100$50,000
December 72:35 AM CSTF0Attala, MS4.050$20,000
December 72:35 AM CSTF0Oktibbeha, MS1.250$20,000
December 72:37 AM CSTF0Rankin, MS0.7100$10,000
December 73:55 AM CSTF2Lowndes, MS to AL8.0200$200,000
December 710:15 AM ESTF0Decatur, IN1.575$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.