Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2008
EF1 tornado, Mc Laurin to Mc Callum, Mississippi, March 3, 2008
From Mc Laurin to Mc Callum, this EF1 tornado ran 1.1 miles across Forrest County on March 3, 2008, touching down at 11:12 PM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 14, and did $1.5 million of property damage.
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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- March 3, 2008
- Touchdown
- 11:12 PM CST (05:12 UTC)
- Lifted
- 11:13 PM CST (05:13 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 1.1 miles (1.8 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 14
- Property damage
- $1.5 million
- County
- Forrest County
- Touchdown point
- 31.199, -89.227
- Lift-off point
- 31.207, -89.210
- Record number
- 0803032312-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong upper level system and evolving surface low moved across the region late on March 3rd. These features combined to bring a potent weather system to the area and a healthy round of severe thunderstorms from late afternoon through around midnight. It was a line of thunderstorms which brought most of the severe weather, but a few supercells did occur just ahead of the line. Ten tornadoes occurred, two of which were strong (EF-2), along with a good deal of wind damage as the line pushed east across Mississippi.
This tornado touched down at Camp Shelby and snapped or uprooted numerous trees, and downed several power lines along the short path. Twelve buildings, mostly barracks, were damaged. Several buildings had the roofs severely damaged with one roof nearly completely torn off. Several walls of the barrack buildings collapsed where the roof support was lost. A hummer was turned over and windows were blown out of several other vehicles. Maximum wind speed was 110 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Hattiesburg Municipal (HBG), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Mobile radar (KMOB), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:14 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.
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 March 3, 2008
14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 3 | 6:36 AM CST | EF1 | Van Zandt, TX | 1.4 | 40 | $50,000 | ||
| March 3 | 8:13 AM CST | EF1 | Bowie, TX | 5.0 | 75 | $750,000 | ||
| March 3 | 8:27 AM CST | EF0 | Little River, AR | 3.0 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| March 3 | 8:46 AM CST | EF0 | Howard, AR | 7.5 | 100 | $200,000 | ||
| March 3 | 3:50 PM CST | EF1 | Amite, MS | 1.5 | 250 | $150,000 | ||
| March 3 | 5:17 PM CST | EF0 | Sharkey, MS | 0.9 | 50 | |||
| March 3 | 5:25 PM CST | EF2 | Sharkey, MS | 7.0 | 440 | $2,000 | ||
| March 3 | 9:01 PM CST | EF1 | Simpson, MS | 0.4 | 75 | $5,000 | ||
| March 3 | 9:10 PM CST | EF1 | Simpson, MS | 1.9 | 150 | $300,000 | ||
| March 3 | 9:25 PM CST | EF1 | Marion, MS | 0.6 | 50 | $250,000 | ||
| March 3 | 9:43 PM CST | EF1 | Scott, MS | 2.1 | 100 | $5,000 | ||
| March 3 | 9:49 PM CST | EF1 | Scott, MS | 4.0 | 175 | $1.2 million | ||
| March 3 | 10:49 PM CST | EF0 | Kemper, MS | 1.3 | 30 | $55,000 | ||
| March 3 | 11:20 PM CST | EF2 | Clarke, MS | 8.3 | 350 | $400,000 |
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.