Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2009
EF1 tornado, Spanish Fort to Lucre, Mississippi, May 10, 2009
From Spanish Fort to Lucre, this EF1 tornado ran 2.6 miles across Sharkey County on May 10, 2009, touching down at 5:40 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 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
- May 10, 2009
- Touchdown
- 5:40 PM CDT (22:40 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:44 PM CDT (22:44 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 2.6 miles (4.2 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $2,000
- County
- Sharkey County
- Touchdown point
- 32.740, -90.810
- Lift-off point
- 32.726, -90.768
- Record number
- 0905101640-01
What the Weather Service recorded
During the afternoon and evening of the 10th, a small outbreak of severe storms occurred across the ArkLaMiss region. There were a number of reports of hail, wind damage, and a few tornadoes across the region. One of the strongest storms moved across Sharkey county. This storm produced an EF1 tornado in the Delta National Forest. Another strong storm produced three injuries in Rankin County, when broken and flying glass from a vehicle injured 3 people. Winds were estimated at 70 mph.
A number of hardwood and softwood trees were snapped and uprooted in a narrow path. One large hardwood was snapped across Road 703. Maximum winds were around 95 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
34 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:06 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:29 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:29 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | JAN |
| 21:57 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN |
| 22:06 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAN |
| 22:36 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN |
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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:44 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.
Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z
10.7 hours before the tornado, 81 km from the path. May 10, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1410 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -36 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 47 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 553 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 36 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 102 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.4 K/km
Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z
1.3 hours after it, 81 km from the path. May 11, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1666 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 4126 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1226 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 10 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 47 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 101 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.6
- Supercell composite
- 7.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.3 K/km
The radar
The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:39 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:07 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 9 S Mayersville | Issaquena, MS | TREES DOWN ALONG WITH SOME POWER LINES NEAR HIGHWAY 1. SOME DAMAGE WAS SUSTAINED BY A MOBILE HOME. |
| 22:11 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S Mayersville | Issaquena, MS | TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN. |
| 22:40 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 8 Sw Holly Bluff | Sharkey, MS | A 2.2 MILE LONG EF1 TORNADO OCCURRED IN THE DELTA NATIONAL FOREST. A NUMBER OF HARDWOOD AND SOFTWOOD TREES WERE SNAPPED AND UPROOTED IN A NARROW PATH. 1 LARGE HARDWOOD WAS SNAPPED ACROSS ROAD 703. PATH WIDTH WAS 50 YDS A |
| 23:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Ese Vicksburg | Warren, MS | A FEW TREES DOWN ON HIGHWAY 27. |
| 23:42 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Pocahontas | Hinds, MS | ESTIMATED IN THE POCAHONTAS AREA |
| 23:42 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Pocahontas | Hinds, MS | |
| 23:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 S Pocahontas | Hinds, MS | TREES DOWN ON PINEHAVEN DRIVE BETWEEN HIGHWAY 49 AND KICKAPOO ROAD. ALSO TREE DOWN ACROSS HIGHWAY 49 NEAR PINEHAVEN DRIVE |
| 23:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Pocahontas | Hinds, MS | TREE DOWN SOUTH OF POCAHONTAS. |
| 23:45 UTC | TSTM WND GST 75 | 1 S Pocahontas | Hinds, MS | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN JUST S OF POCAHONTAS...SOME WERE DOWN ON PINEHAVEN DRIVE BETWEEN HIGHWAY 49 AND KICKAPOO ROAD. ALSO TREE DOWN ACROSS HIGHWAY 49 NEAR PINEHAVEN DRIVE. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 10, 2009
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 10 | 3:44 PM CDT | EF0 | Natchitoches Parish, LA | 2.4 | 75 |
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.