Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2006

F0 tornado, Liberty, Mississippi, March 9, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Amite County on March 9, 2006, touching down at 3:05 PM CST and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
March 9, 2006
Touchdown
3:05 PM CST (21:05 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Amite County
Touchdown point
31.230, -90.920
Lift-off point
31.230, -90.920
Record number
67

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado was reported to have briefly touched down northwest of Liberty causing no damage.

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

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:54 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:29 UTC and running to 23:09 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:29 UTC23:09 UTCTornado WatchLIX
18:33 UTC00:00 UTCWind AdvisoryLIX
20:16 UTC20:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLIX
20:54 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningLIX

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:25 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

9.1 hours before the tornado, 145 km from the path. March 9, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 2006-03-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 37 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 717 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, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 2006-03-09The 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 237 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 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
37 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
28 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
717 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
237 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
320 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z

2.9 hours after it, 145 km from the path. March 10, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2006-03-10Temperature 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 -94763, lifted condensation level 1501 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 2006-03-10The 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 -119 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 92 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
-94763 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1501 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
92 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-119 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-90 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mccomb/Lewis Field (MCB), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:53 UTC7562180° 22 kt29999.7
20:53 UTC7559190° 28 kt39999.7
21:53 UTC5855280° 12 kt261003RA BR
22:53 UTC5549280° 9 kt151003.4RA

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

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:15 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 4310 Ne NatchezAdams, MSGRADIENT WIND GUST 180 AT 37 KNOTS FROM KHEZ
18:25 UTCNON-TSTM WND DMGBrookhavenLincoln, MSSEVERAL TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN COUNTY WIDE FROM STRONG GRADIENT WINDS. SEVERAL OF THE DOWNED POWER LINES SET GRASS FIRES BEFORE THE RAIN ARRIVED. ALL REPORT OF A METAL ROOF OFF A COUNTRY STORE APPROXIMATELY 6 MILES W
19:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGNatchezAdams, MSNUMEROUS LIMBS BLOWN DOWN AND SEVERAL SMALL TREES.
20:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 759 Se FayetteJefferson, MSROOFS BLOWN OFF.
20:20 UTCTSTM WND GST 60MeadvilleFranklin, MS
21:05 UTCTORNADO7 Nw LibertyAmite, MSTORNADO SPOTTED 7 MILES NORTHWEST OF LIBERTY HEADING NORTHEAST. NO DAMAGE REPORTED.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 9, 2006

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 912:19 AM CSTF0Pettis, MO1.350$10,000
March 95:40 AM CSTF1Lonoke, AR1.025
March 96:50 AM CSTF2Woodruff, AR15.71006$100,000
March 97:33 AM CSTF0Sevier, AR2.060
March 97:55 AM CSTF1Howard, AR15.2300$10,000
March 98:18 AM CSTF1Pike, AR8.050
March 91:00 PM CSTF1Panola, MS1.0200$500,000
March 95:44 PM CSTF1Stoddard, MO1.2175$900,000

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.