Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2004

F2 tornado, Simpson and Rankin counties, Mississippi, February 5, 2004

This F2 tornado ran 10.0 miles across Simpson and Rankin counties on February 5, 2004, touching down at 10:26 AM CST and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $260,000 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 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
February 5, 2004
Touchdown
10:26 AM CST (16:26 UTC)
Path length
10.0 miles (16.1 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$260,000
Counties
Simpson and Rankin counties
Touchdown point
31.980, -90.100
Lift-off point
32.080, -89.970
Record number
730

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:20 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:10 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
14:56 UTC15:55 UTCTornado WarningJAN
16:04 UTC22:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningJAN
16:06 UTC16:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN
16:20 UTC17:10 UTCTornado WarningJAN
17:31 UTC18:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN
18:18 UTC18:50 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN
19:01 UTC20:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN
20:58 UTC02:00 UTCFlash Flood 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 forecast that day

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 12:56 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), 12:00Z

4.4 hours before the tornado, 33 km from the path. February 5, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 2004-02-05Temperature 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 -69102, lifted condensation level 585 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2004-02-05The 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 547 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
-69102 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
585 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
547 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
845 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z

7.6 hours after it, 33 km from the path. February 6, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2004-02-06Temperature 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 -30246, lifted condensation level 810 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2004-02-06The 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 -96 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-30246 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
810 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-96 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-71 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 February 5, 2004

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 51:20 PM CSTF1Newton, MS8.0200$30,000
February 54:15 PM CSTF1Lauderdale, MS1.5100$80,000

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.