Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2004
F2 tornado, Good Hope to Rosebud, Mississippi, November 24, 2004
From Good Hope to Rosebud, this F2 tornado ran 10.5 miles across Leake and Scott counties on November 24, 2004, touching down at 1:15 AM CST and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $300,000 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 mph
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 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.
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
- F2
- Date
- November 24, 2004
- Touchdown
- 1:15 AM CST (07:15 UTC)
- Path length
- 10.5 miles (16.9 km)
- Path width
- 400 yards (366 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $300,000
- Counties
- Leake and Scott counties
- Touchdown point
- 32.600, -89.750
- Lift-off point
- 32.670, -89.600
- Record number
- 1791
What the Weather Service recorded
This tornado touched down just inside Scott county and tracked northeast for 10 miles across southwest Leake county. Hundreds of trees were damaged along its path. Four mobile homes sustained minor damage with pieces of siding torn off and small parts of their roof pealed back. Major damage occurred to three residential homes were two sustained significant roof damage and the other was destroyed due to several trees falling on it. In addition, one chicken house was severely damaged and three farm buildings destroyed.
This tornado touched down just to the west of the Rosebud community and tracked northeast for 3 miles before dissipating 2 miles west of Madden. Numerous trees were uprooted and snapped. One home was severely damaged due to two large large trees that fell on it. One chicken house had a large portion of its roof torn off and tin scattered for 1/4 mile.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
13 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:02 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 07:02 UTC | 08:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAN |
| 08:00 UTC | 08:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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
7.3 hours before the tornado, 52 km from the path. November 24, 2004.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1370 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -16 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1442 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 857 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 63 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 185 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 198 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.9
- Supercell composite
- 6.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.1 K/km
Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z
4.7 hours after it, 52 km from the path. November 24, 2004.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 52 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -341 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 45 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 908 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 63 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 163 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 178 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.4 K/km
The surface observations
Jackson/Thompson (JAN), 52 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05:54 UTC | 71 | 66 | 150° 11 kt | 1004.4 | TS | |
| 06:54 UTC | 71 | 65 | 240° 25 kt | 37 | 1005.4 | -TSRA |
| 07:54 UTC | 63 | 62 | 180° 7 kt | 1004.1 | -TSRA BR | |
| 08:54 UTC | 63 | 61 | 290° 6 kt | 1005.1 | +RA BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 49 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:14 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 November 24, 2004
49 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 24 | 12:30 AM CST | F2 | Saint Tammany Parish, LA | 4.0 | 50 | 4 | $750,000 | |
| November 24 | 12:33 AM CST | F0 | Hinds, MS | 1.0 | 30 | $2,000 | ||
| November 24 | 12:35 AM CST | F0 | Madison, MS | 6.0 | 40 | $2,000 | ||
| November 24 | 12:54 AM CST | F2 | Lawrence, MS | 28.0 | 200 | $1.5 million | ||
| November 24 | 1:32 AM CST | F1 | Lawrence, MS | 7.0 | 75 | $30,000 | ||
| November 24 | 1:43 AM CST | F1 | Leake, MS | 3.0 | 75 | $120,000 | ||
| November 24 | 1:53 AM CST | F2 | Smith, MS | 38.0 | 600 | 4 | $7.0 million | |
| November 24 | 2:10 AM CST | F0 | Stone, MS | 0.3 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:19 AM CST | F1 | Neshoba, MS | 4.0 | 100 | $30,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:25 AM CST | F3 | Winston, MS | 21.0 | 600 | 1 | 2 | $2.7 million |
| November 24 | 2:40 AM CST | F0 | Perry, MS | 0.2 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:41 AM CST | F1 | Lauderdale, MS | 12.0 | 300 | $150,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:50 AM CST | F1 | Noxubee, MS | 7.5 | 200 | $70,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:50 AM CST | F1 | Lincoln, MS | 3.0 | 150 | $60,000 | ||
| November 24 | 3:07 AM CST | F1 | Noxubee, MS | 5.0 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| November 24 | 3:10 AM CST | F0 | Greene, MS | 0.3 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 3:25 AM CST | F0 | Wayne, MS | 0.2 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 4:10 AM CST | F2 | Marengo, AL | 11.9 | 200 | 2 | $140,000 | |
| November 24 | 4:35 AM CST | F1 | Clarke, AL | 3.0 | 100 | $200,000 | ||
| November 24 | 4:40 AM CST | F0 | Choctaw, AL | 0.5 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 4:43 AM CST | F0 | Marengo, AL | 5.0 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| November 24 | 4:50 AM CST | F1 | Jefferson Parish, LA | 4.5 | 75 | $250,000 | ||
| November 24 | 5:07 AM CST | F1 | Dallas, AL | 14.7 | 300 | 1 | $100,000 | |
| November 24 | 5:10 AM CST | F0 | Stone, MS | 0.2 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 5:28 AM CST | F0 | Jefferson, AL | 1.0 | 50 | $70,000 | ||
| November 24 | 5:49 AM CST | F2 | Autauga, AL | 49.0 | 1,400 | $630,000 | ||
| November 24 | 5:56 AM CST | F0 | Dallas, AL | 1.1 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:00 AM CST | F2 | Harrison, MS | 1.5 | 50 | $3.0 million | ||
| November 24 | 6:24 AM CST | F2 | Autauga, AL | 9.7 | 500 | 1 | $900,000 | |
| November 24 | 6:36 AM CST | F1 | Talladega, AL | 0.9 | 50 | $80,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:41 AM CST | F0 | Talladega, AL | 5.7 | 250 | $640,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:48 AM CST | F0 | Talladega, AL | 3.3 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:48 AM CST | F0 | Elmore, AL | 2.4 | 50 | $120,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:59 AM CST | F2 | Talladega, AL | 15.2 | 500 | 1 | $210,000 | |
| November 24 | 7:09 AM CST | F1 | Clay, AL | 13.7 | 300 | $260,000 | ||
| November 24 | 7:10 AM CST | F0 | Mobile, AL | 0.1 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 7:24 AM CST | F0 | Montgomery, AL | 4.8 | 75 | $40,000 | ||
| November 24 | 7:35 AM CST | F0 | Tallapoosa, AL | 0.8 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 7:55 AM CST | F0 | Baldwin, AL | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| November 24 | 8:09 AM CST | F0 | Lee, AL | 0.2 | 30 | $30,000 | ||
| November 24 | 8:55 AM CST | F1 | Santa Rosa, FL | 1.0 | 50 | $70,000 | ||
| November 24 | 10:41 AM CST | F1 | Walton, FL | 0.2 | 100 | $40,000 | ||
| November 24 | 10:55 AM CST | F0 | Walton, FL | 0.2 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 11:50 AM CST | F0 | Bay, FL | 0.1 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:25 PM EST | F0 | Union, SC | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| November 24 | 3:03 PM EST | F0 | Aiken, SC | 0.5 | 80 | |||
| November 24 | 5:25 PM EST | F1 | Rush, IN | 2.1 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:02 PM EST | F0 | Wayne, IN | 0.1 | 10 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 10:10 PM EST | F0 | Decatur, IN | 0.5 | 50 | $30,000 |
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.