EF1 tornado, Raworth to Hillsboro, Mississippi, March 11, 2010

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

March 11, 2010

Touchdown

3:05 AM CST (09:05 UTC)

Lifted

3:12 AM CST (09:12 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.3 miles (8.5 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

Crop damage

$200,000

County

Scott County

Touchdown point

32.416, -89.585

Lift-off point

32.471, -89.522

Record number

1003110305-01

A vigorous storm system, with strong low level moisture and solid instability, combined to produce scattered severe storms during the morning hours of March 11th. Hail along with a couple tornadoes occurred from this activity.

The tornado started in the Bienville National Forest, just to the southwest of Federal Road 508A. As it crossed the road, it snapped and uprooted large numbers of pine trees. This was where the tornado reached its maximum intensity, EF-1 with 100 mph winds, and width of 400 yards. The tornado continued northeast, crossing Clifton Road. The tornado was narrower and somewhat weaker here, but was still topping numerous pine trees and uprooting several hardwood trees. The tornado then continued northeast and crossed Clifton-Hillsboro Road. Numerous trees were downed near a home along this road, and fences were damaged in a field behind the home. Several large pine trees were downed across the road, and power lines were downed as well. The tornado continued northeast as it weakened, downing a few trees and damaging a carport before diminishing at Hillsboro-Ludlow Road.

The same parent supercell thunderstorm spawned a second path of tornadic damage to the northwest of the first tornado. This tornado started along Clifton Road, where a number of pine trees were topped and several others were snapped or uprooted. The tornado tracked northeast across Tadpole Road, where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted, including several large hardwood trees downed across the road itself. The tornado dissipated as it crossed Clifton Hillsboro Road. It was determined to be an EF1 with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:56 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:34 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:25 UTC and running to 09:32 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:32 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.

Jackson/Thompson (JAN), 51 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), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:04 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 2010 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.