Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2008
EF0 tornado, Gulfport, Mississippi, February 12, 2008
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Harrison County on February 12, 2008, touching down at 11:37 AM CST and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- February 12, 2008
- Touchdown
- 11:37 AM CST (17:37 UTC)
- Lifted
- 11:39 AM CST (17:39 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Harrison County
- Touchdown point
- 30.441, -89.151
- Lift-off point
- 30.441, -89.151
- Record number
- 0802121137-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe thunderstorms developed across south Mississippi in advance of a strong upper level disturbance and an assoicated cold front.
A weak tornado was observed briefly touching down in the vicinity of Interstate 10 and Canal Boulevard causing no damage.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:25 UTC and running to 23:24 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:25 UTC | 23:24 UTC | Tornado Watch | LIX |
| 21:00 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LIX |
| 21:15 UTC | 22:00 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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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
5.6 hours before the tornado, 57 km from the path. February 12, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -86823 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1161 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 115 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 147 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 1.9 K/km
Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 00:00Z
6.4 hours after it, 57 km from the path. February 13, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1190 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1249 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 60 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 44 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -533 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -248 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.3 K/km
The surface observations
Gulfport-Biloxi (GPT), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:53 UTC | 69 | 59 | 160° 11 kt | 19 | 1014.2 | |
| 16:53 UTC | 68 | 59 | 160° 9 kt | 18 | 1013.9 | |
| 17:53 UTC | 70 | 58 | 160° 9 kt | 20 | 1012.5 | |
| 18:33 UTC | 66.2 | 57.2 | 150° 9 kt | 1011.5 | VCTS | |
| 18:48 UTC | 64.4 | 59 | 160° 8 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |
| 18:53 UTC | 64 | 59 | 160° 8 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |
| 19:01 UTC | 64.4 | 59 | 150° 8 kt | 1010.8 | VCTS -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Mobile radar (KMOB), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:37 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:39 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Nw Gulfport | Harrison, MS | PUBLIC REPORTED TORNADO IN VICINITY OF I-10 AND CANAL BLVD. 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 2008 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of February 12, 2008
15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 12 | 12:40 PM CST | EF0 | Plaquemines Parish, LA | 0.1 | 15 | |||
| February 12 | 12:45 PM CST | EF1 | Rankin, MS | 3.2 | 400 | $1.0 million | ||
| February 12 | 1:02 PM CST | EF0 | Saint Martin Parish, LA | 0.3 | 10 | $15,000 | ||
| February 12 | 1:07 PM CST | EF1 | Rankin, MS | 2.7 | 250 | $200,000 | ||
| February 12 | 1:16 PM CST | EF0 | Iberia Parish, LA | 0.2 | 10 | $20,000 | ||
| February 12 | 1:21 PM CST | EF0 | Pike, MS | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| February 12 | 1:23 PM CST | EF0 | Saint Helena Parish, LA | 0.2 | 20 | |||
| February 12 | 2:45 PM EST | EF0 | Brevard, FL | 0.1 | 30 | $200,000 | ||
| February 12 | 1:45 PM CST | EF0 | Smith, MS | 0.7 | 150 | $25,000 | ||
| February 12 | 1:45 PM CST | EF1 | Tangipahoa Parish, LA | 0.8 | 20 | 1 | $25,000 | |
| February 12 | 1:53 PM CST | EF1 | Covington, MS | 1.5 | 100 | $200,000 | ||
| February 12 | 2:07 PM CST | EF1 | Jasper, MS | 0.9 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| February 12 | 2:20 PM CST | EF0 | Saint Charles Parish, LA | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| February 12 | 9:45 PM EST | EF0 | Collier, FL | 1.3 | 50 | $445,000 | ||
| February 12 | 11:03 PM EST | EF0 | Broward, FL | 3.1 | 220 | $350,000 |
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.