F3 tornado, Mize, Mississippi, April 6, 2005

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

F3

Date

April 6, 2005

Touchdown

10:10 AM CDT (15:10 UTC)

Path length

28.0 miles (45.1 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$8.0 million

Counties

Covington, Smith and Jasper counties

Touchdown point

31.770, -89.670

Lift-off point

32.050, -89.280

Record number

759

This strong tornado developed from a long lived supercell thunderstorm, which had a history of producing tornadoes, that moved across a large portion of Southern and Central Mississippi. The tornado touched down just N of Mount Olive, in Covington county, and stayed on the ground for 28 miles across most of Smith county, where it dissipated around the Ted community just inside Jasper county. Where the tornado first touched down it was weak, F0, and only downed a few trees. As it moved NE, into Smith county, it quickly gained strength. F1 to F2 type damaged occurred across SW Smith county where hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted and several homes and outbuildings had part or all of their roofs blown off. As the strong tornado approached Mize, MS, it became stronger and reached it maximum intensity, F3. Here the tornado was 600 yards wide and was significantly damaging nearly all the trees in its path. One mile to the SW of Mize, a mobile home was destroyed. The most significant damage occurred in Mize where the Attendance Center was nearly demolished. The top floor of the Attendance Center was almost completely taken off, 3 portable classrooms were destroyed along with several large light poles bent or snapped. The tornado continued to the NE toward the Center Ridge community. The damage between Mize and Center Ridge, a distance of nearly 9 miles, ranged between F2 and F3. Along Providence Road, a barn was destroyed, 2 homes were significantly damaged and a church was heavily damaged. The tornado crossed State Highway 37 and continued toward the Center Ridge community. Here, many more trees were uprooted along with several structures demolished or sustaining significant damage. As the tornado tracked toward Sylvarena, it began to weaken and become smaller. From this point, to where it dissipated in Jasper county, damage was confined to trees snapped and uprooted. This tornado affected 3 counties and had a total path length of 28 miles.

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

60 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:10 UTC, 60 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:15 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 12:43 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.

Pine Belt Regional Awos (PIB), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:10 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

22 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.