EF1 tornado, Mayday, Mississippi, May 2, 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

May 2, 2008

Touchdown

12:49 AM CDT (05:49 UTC)

Lifted

12:51 AM CDT (05:51 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.1 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

Crop damage

$300,000

County

Leflore County

Touchdown point

33.374, -90.331

Lift-off point

33.379, -90.309

Record number

0805022349-01

A large and powerful storm system brought several rounds of severe weather to a large section of the Central United States. The Central Plains were hit hard on Thursday, May 1st, while the Mid-South and Lower Mississippi River Valley were impacted on Friday, May 2nd into the early morning hours of May 3rd. As this severe weather episode evolved over the National Weather Service Jackson, MS service area, several tornadoes occurred, along with large hail and damaging winds.

This tornado briefly touched down near Morgan City. Numerous hardwood trees were snapped and uprooted along the short path. The most intense damage occurred in a pecan grove just north of the Yazoo River. One large tree fell on a house causing significant damage. Maximum winds were around 105 mph.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:27 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 04:40 UTC and running to 06:59 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 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 00:53 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.

Greenwood/Leflore (GWO), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:48 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

39 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.