2009 tornadoes in Mississippi

44 tornadoes touched down in Mississippi in 2009, 17 percent above the average of the record for the state. They killed 1 people and injured 32.

2008 2010 The whole country in 2009

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 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.

Every tornado in Mississippi in 2009

January 3 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
January 3	1:13 PM CST	EF1	Smith	0.9	175			$40,000

January 10 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
January 10	3:33 PM CST	EF0	Lauderdale	1.9	30

February 27 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
February 27	2:36 PM CST	EF0	Noxubee	2.2	75			$1,000

March 25 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
March 25	10:59 AM CDT	EF1	Lauderdale	5.4	200	$100,000
March 25	11:44 PM CDT	EF0	Hinds	2.7	100	$70,000
March 25	12:00 AM CDT	EF1	Hinds	12.3	500	$70,000
March 25	12:17 AM CDT	EF1	Madison	4.9	250	$300,000
March 25	12:20 AM CDT	EF0	Madison	0.9	125	$55,000
March 25	12:58 AM CDT	EF1	Amite	4.0	30	$15,000

March 26 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
March 26	1:36 AM CDT	EF3	Simpson	17.4	500	25	$5.0 million
March 26	2:31 AM CDT	EF1	Jasper	19.4	500	1	$2.0 million
March 26	2:43 AM CDT	EF2	Jones	9.9	500	1	$800,000
March 26	6:33 AM CDT	EF0	Jackson	0.1	50		$18,000

March 27 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 27	1:45 AM CDT	EF1	Hancock	7.0	200			$20,000
March 27	6:27 PM CDT	EF0	Adams	3.5	50			$1,000

March 28 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 28	2:58 AM CDT	EF1	Smith	0.8	200			$500,000

April 2 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
April 2	12:40 PM CDT	EF0	Pike	0.1	20
April 2	1:50 PM CDT	EF0	Hancock	1.5	25	$2,000
April 2	2:05 PM CDT	EF0	Hancock	0.2	20
April 2	2:45 PM CDT	EF0	Jackson	0.2	25	$50,000
April 2	6:42 PM CDT	EF0	Chickasaw	0.6	100
April 2	7:23 PM CDT	EF1	Monroe	2.8	75

May 2 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 2	1:48 PM CDT	EF0	Lee	0.2	75	$20,000
May 2	1:50 PM CDT	EF0	Lee	0.1	25	$10,000
May 2	2:00 PM CDT	EF0	Itawamba	1.9	100	$40,000
May 2	2:22 PM CDT	EF0	Itawamba	1.7	100	$15,000

May 3 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 3	7:00 AM CDT	EF0	Leake	4.3	100	$8,000
May 3	9:55 AM CDT	EF1	Claiborne	4.6	50	$15,000
May 3	11:07 AM CDT	EF1	Jefferson Davis	8.4	400	$262,000
May 3	11:12 AM CDT	EF1	Covington	20.1	400	$145,000
May 3	11:30 AM CDT	EF1	Smith	4.8	350	$328,000
May 3	11:41 AM CDT	EF1	Jasper	0.6	176	$10,000

May 4 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 4	6:35 AM CDT	EF1	Pearl River	2.0	25			$8,000

May 6 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 6	3:34 AM CDT	EF1	Coahoma	0.1	25		$60,000
May 6	7:12 AM CDT	EF1	Choctaw	7.6	500		$350,000
May 6	7:47 AM CDT	EF1	Noxubee	5.0	500	2	$300,000

May 10 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 10	5:40 PM CDT	EF1	Sharkey	2.6	50			$2,000

June 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 12	4:58 PM CDT	EF2	DeSoto	2.9	75		1	$4.0 million

July 28 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 28	3:43 PM CDT	EF0	Oktibbeha	0.3	20

July 30 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 30	5:00 PM CDT	EF2	DeSoto	5.8	440			$6.0 million

October 9 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
October 9	11:43 AM CDT	EF0	Bolivar	2.4	75			$45,000
October 9	11:45 AM CDT	EF1	Washington	2.0	100	1	2	$225,000

December 8 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
December 8	8:35 PM CST	EF0	Leake	6.5	75			$2,000

December 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
December 24	3:50 PM CST	EF0	Jackson	0.3	20			$2,000

Crossed into Mississippi

Tornadoes that touched down in a neighboring state and ran into Mississippi. They are counted under the state they began in.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 30	3:23 PM CDT	EF2	Arkansas, AR to MS	33.4	600			$5.1 million

Nearby

Every tornado in Mississippi since 1950 Warnings in force in Mississippi The live radar over Mississippi

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.