EF3 tornado, (Tup)Lemons Arpt Tup to Flowerdale, Mississippi, May 8, 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 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 8, 2008

Touchdown

8:01 AM CDT (13:01 UTC)

Lifted

8:19 AM CDT (13:19 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

7.6 miles (12.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.5 million

County

Lee County

Touchdown point

34.260, -88.793

Lift-off point

34.318, -88.681

Record number

0805080701-01

A weak warm front was located across North Mississippi during the morning of May 8th, 2008. Isolated thunderstorms began developing along the front. One thunderstorm quickly became severe and produced a significant tornado. Damaging winds, large hail, flash flooding and a weak tornado occurred from other thunderstorms.

The initial tornado touchdown occurred 1.5 miles west of the Tupelo Regional Airport. The tornado traveled northeast across Northern Lee County moving just north of the Tupelo Regional Airport. The tornado reached its maximum intensity as it hit the Furniture Market Mississippi building on Coley Road and Chesterville Road. The tornado continued to produce significant damage on North Gloster Road near the Barnes Crossing Mall. The tornado continued moving northeast and crossed U.S. Highway 45 where it struck a farm supply store. Several cars were damaged by flying debris, tractor trailers were overturned and part of the supply store roof was torn off. Next to the farm supply store, a marine and outdoor store was also hit where several boats were damaged and the roof was partially torn off. Also, a large hardware store, a medical complex and a Mississippi Department of Transportation district office were among other buildings damaged. The tornado moved northeast uprooting and snapping large trees as well as producing minor roof damage to several homes before lifting about 3 miles south southeast of Saltillo.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:51 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:30 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:48 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 Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:59 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

28 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.