Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2005
F2 tornado, Progress to Dinan, Mississippi, April 6, 2005
From Progress to Dinan, this F2 tornado ran 16.0 miles across Pike and Walthall counties on April 6, 2005, touching down at 7:50 AM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $500,000 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
- April 6, 2005
- Touchdown
- 7:50 AM CDT (12:50 UTC)
- Path length
- 16.0 miles (25.7 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 2
- Property damage
- $500,000
- Counties
- Pike and Walthall counties
- Touchdown point
- 31.050, -90.330
- Lift-off point
- 31.330, -90.150
- Record number
- 686
What the Weather Service recorded
A meso-cyclone thunderstorm produced a tornado as moved on an intermittent path northeastward across eastern Pike County and northwest Walthall County.
A tornado touched down near the community of Progress in Pike County and moved north northeast to the Barto area before crossing Highway 98 and moving out of Pike County and into Walthall County about 2 miles east northeast of Holmesville. Along its path in Pike County, the tornado destroyed a church and a couple of mobile homes, damaged a number of houses and businesses, and knocked down numerous trees.
A tornado moved out of Pike County and entered Walthall County about 3 miles west northwest of Dinan and continued travelling north northeast until it dissipated approximately 2 miles west of Sartinsville. The tornado caused significant damage to 25 houses, 10 trailers, and 2 businesses in Walthall County.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
52 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:58 UTC, 52 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:58 UTC | 13:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | LIX |
| 12:55 UTC | 14:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | LIX |
| 13:58 UTC | 14:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | LIX |
| 14:25 UTC | 15:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | LIX |
| 18:53 UTC | 19:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LIX |
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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 05:49 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.
Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 12:00Z
0.8 hours before the tornado, 117 km from the path. April 6, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1199 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -10 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1114 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 645 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 199 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 279 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.2
- Supercell composite
- 8.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 00:00Z
11.2 hours after it, 117 km from the path. April 7, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1611 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2017 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 667 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 56 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 70 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 157 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.8
- Supercell composite
- 3.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.1 K/km
The surface observations
Mccomb/Lewis Field (MCB), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:53 UTC | 69 | 66 | 170° 12 kt | 20 | 1012.2 | -RA |
| 11:36 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 170° 11 kt | 1012.2 | VCTS BR | |
| 11:53 UTC | 69 | 67 | 170° 10 kt | 1012.2 | +TSRA BR | |
| 12:09 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 170° 14 kt | 17 | 1011.9 | +TSRA BR |
| 12:31 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 200° 11 kt | 1012.5 | +TSRA FG | |
| 12:35 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 200° 13 kt | 1012.5 | TSRA BR | |
| 12:39 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 230° 9 kt | 17 | 1012.2 | TSRA BR |
| 12:53 UTC | 69 | 66 | 180° 11 kt | 1012.5 | -TSRA BR | |
| 13:22 UTC | 68 | 64.4 | 180° 11 kt | 1012.5 | +TSRA BR | |
| 13:34 UTC | 68 | 64.4 | 190° 7 kt | 18 | 1012.5 | -TSRA |
| 13:53 UTC | 69 | 66 | 170° 14 kt | 17 | 1012.2 | -TSRA |
| 14:09 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 180° 12 kt | 1012.2 | VCTS |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 6, 2005
22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 6 | 7:10 AM CDT | F3 | Rankin, MS | 15.0 | 600 | 6 | $11 million | |
| April 6 | 7:36 AM CDT | F0 | Madison, MS | 2.5 | 30 | $1,000 | ||
| April 6 | 7:40 AM CDT | F0 | Tangipahoa Parish, LA | 0.2 | 20 | $2,000 | ||
| April 6 | 7:58 AM CDT | F1 | Rankin, MS | 1.0 | 200 | $10,000 | ||
| April 6 | 8:00 AM CDT | F1 | Scott, MS | 6.0 | 200 | $700,000 | ||
| April 6 | 8:26 AM CDT | F1 | Leake, MS | 23.0 | 300 | $500 million | ||
| April 6 | 8:32 AM CDT | F1 | Lawrence, MS | 3.5 | 50 | $80,000 | ||
| April 6 | 9:06 AM CDT | F1 | Simpson, MS | 7.0 | 50 | $4,000 | ||
| April 6 | 9:42 AM CDT | F2 | Smith, MS | 13.5 | 500 | $160,000 | ||
| April 6 | 10:06 AM CDT | F0 | Lincoln, MS | 0.7 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| April 6 | 10:10 AM CDT | F3 | Covington, MS | 28.0 | 600 | $8.0 million | ||
| April 6 | 10:22 AM CDT | F1 | Jefferson Parish, LA | 13.0 | 40 | $120,000 | ||
| April 6 | 11:23 AM CDT | F0 | Smith, MS | 0.5 | 30 | $2,000 | ||
| April 6 | 11:35 AM CDT | F1 | Hancock, MS | 1.5 | 30 | $50,000 | ||
| April 6 | 12:12 PM CDT | F2 | Lafourche Parish, LA | 2.0 | 50 | 2 | $250,000 | |
| April 6 | 12:49 PM CDT | F1 | Clarke, MS | 2.0 | 75 | $40,000 | ||
| April 6 | 1:10 PM CDT | F1 | Plaquemines Parish, LA | 1.0 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| April 6 | 3:10 PM CDT | F1 | Leake, MS | 3.0 | 200 | $250,000 | ||
| April 6 | 3:43 PM CDT | F1 | Smith, MS | 3.0 | 75 | $30,000 | ||
| April 6 | 5:51 PM CDT | F0 | Pickens, AL | 1.5 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| April 6 | 5:53 PM CDT | F0 | Covington, MS | 0.5 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| April 6 | 9:12 PM CDT | F1 | Smith, MS | 6.0 | 75 | $300,000 |
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.