EF1 tornado, Champion Hill to Raymond Williams Arp, Mississippi, April 4, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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

EF1

Date

April 4, 2008

Touchdown

12:11 PM CDT (17:11 UTC)

Lifted

12:14 PM CDT (17:14 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.4 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

Crop damage

$200,000

County

Hinds County

Touchdown point

32.402, -90.538

Lift-off point

32.381, -90.498

Record number

0804041111-01

A potent early April storm slammed the area with widespread wind damage and several tornadoes. A bowing line of thunderstorms was the culprit with the main axis of severe weather and damage having occurred within the I-20 corridor from northeast Louisiana to the Jackson Metro to east-central Mississippi around Meridian. Several extensive swaths of significant wind damage occurred, where winds were estimated at 80 mph or greater. Overall, several thousand trees were snapped and uprooted with several dozen homes damaged by downed trees. The strongest tornado occurred in the Jackson Metro area as it moved across Northeast Jackson and into the Reservoir area of Northwest Rankin County. Additionally, the significant wind damage was focused across portions of Vicksburg, Bolton, Jackson, the Reservoir area of Rankin County, the Hillsboro area in Scott County, northern Newton County and the northern half of Lauderdale County. Aside from the tornadoes, this was one of the most significant wind events to impact the Jackson Metro area as well as the City of Vicksburg. Nearly everyone described this event as being worse than Hurricane Katrina for central Mississippi.

This tornado started along Farr Road and tracked east-southeast across Highway 22 and then across Queens Hill Road. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted around Farr Road and Highway 22 with one shed destroyed. Tree damage became more extensive just north and across Queens Hill Road where dozens of trees were snapped and uprooted. Damage along this 3 mile path was concentrated with several trees laid to the northwest or even back to the west. The majority of the trees were down to the southeast or east-southeast. The tornado lifted between Queens Hill and Williams Lake Roads. Tree damage became much more widespread, indicative of straight line damage, across Williams Lake Road. Maximum winds were near 110 mph.

Another short path of tornadic damage occurred just east-northeast of Bolton. This tornado started along the I-20 Frontage Road and tracked just south of east along I-20 to the Norrell Road Intersection. Two billboards were blown down and destroyed with another heavily damaged. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. Within the path of tree damage, several areas indicated trees blown down to the north or northwest while the majority were blown down in the east-southeast direction.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:44 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:50 UTC and running to 18:47 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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:20 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.

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:12 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

14 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.