EF1 tornado, Philipp to Teasdale, Mississippi, April 27, 2011

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

April 27, 2011

Touchdown

1:15 AM CDT (06:15 UTC)

Lifted

1:46 AM CDT (06:46 UTC)

On the ground

31 minutes

Path length

27.7 miles (44.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

Crop damage

$30,000

Counties

Leflore and Tallahatchie counties

Touchdown point

33.741, -90.244

Lift-off point

34.084, -89.993

Record number

1104270015-01

A stationary front remained draped across Southern Missouri into Western Kentucky from April 24th, 2011 into April 25th, 2011. A very warm and unstable atmosphere was in place across the Mid-South ahead of the front. A low pressure system developed along the front and interacted with the unstable environment which helped produce several rounds of severe storms into the evening of April 26th, 2011. As a result of the severe storms, the front sank south during the early morning hours of April 27th, 2011 as a secondary low pressure system developed along the front. As a result, another round of severe storms fired during the afternoon hours ahead of the low pressure center. Additional severe storms fired along the trailing cold front. Tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds, flash flooding occurred as a result of the severe storms.

A historic outbreak of tornadoes across the Ark-La-Miss began late on Tuesday, April 26th continuing into the early morning hours of Wednesday, April 27th. The event ramped up again during the early afternoon of April 27th continuing into the early evening. The activity on April 26th began as supercell thunderstorms producing large hail and tornadoes across northeast Texas and portions of Arkansas before evolving into a squall line as it moved east. This line of storms had multiple stages of evolution and moved across several states before dissipating. This line was very efficient in producing wind damage as it pushed east. More impressively, this line was responsible for 23 of the 32 tornadoes that occurred across the Ark-La-Miss during this event. Of those 23, 12 were rated as strong (EF2, EF3) tornadoes and had fairly long path lengths.||The atmosphere reloaded quickly Wednesday morning and became increasingly favorable for more severe storms by early afternoon. The driving force for the activity Wednesday afternoon was a potent shortwave and deep surface low that intensified during the day. The winds in the mid levels of the atmosphere increased to 80-100 mph helping to deepen the surface low further, which in turn caused the low level winds to become stronger. The wind shear caused by the turning of the winds from south near the surface to westerly aloft was at rare levels for late April over the Deep South. In addition, an abundance of low level moisture returned to the area in wake of the morning complex. Sunny skies during the morning interacted with the high levels of low level moisture eventually leading to a very unstable air mass by early afternoon. The result was an extremely rare mix of instability and wind shear. These ingredients, along with lift from a potent upper disturbance, ultimately led to the historic tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011.||By early afternoon, several discrete supercell thunderstorms were developing across central and eastern Mississippi. It did not take long for these storms to take on ���classic��� supercell structures and begin producing tornadoes. The first tornado of the afternoon started in Neshoba County on the north side of Philadelphia. This tornado ended up producing EF-5 damage and tracked for 29 miles across Neshoba, Kemper, Winston and Noxubee Counties. Through the rest of the afteroon multiple tornadoes developed, stemming from multiple supercell storms. Nearly all of the storms produced tornadoes, with many of them long track and significant. The other violent tornado to impact the Jackson, MS forecast area occurred across Smith, Jasper, and Clarke Counties. This tornado continued into Alabama and had a total path length of 124 miles across both states.||Loss of life during this historic event was staggering. Unfortunately, 321 people lost their lives making this the second deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history. The March 18, 1925 Tri-State tornado outbreak is first with 747 fatalities. This marks the first EF-5 tornado in Mississippi since the Candlestick Park tornado on May 3, 1966, and this marks the first time since statistics have been kept that two EF-5 tornadoes have been recorded on the same day in Mississippi, with the tornado in Smithville also rated as EF-5. Incredibly, 4 tornadoes had path lengths over 100 miles across the southern states during this event, and all 4 of these were rated either EF-4 or EF-5.

A tornado touched down near Money Road outside of Philip and moved northeast. Many trees were snapped or uprooted. A fence was also blown over. The tornado continued northeast and crossed into Leflore County, Mississippi.

This tornado began in Tallahatchie County and tracked across part of Leflore County before crossing back into Tallahatchie County. The tornado touched down in a field snapping trees and limbs in a rural part of the county. Maximum winds were around 90 mph. Total path length across Leflore and Tallahatchie Counties was 27.7 miles.

A tornado continued northeast out of Leflore County, Mississippi into Tallahatchie County. Several homes sustained shingle damage. A portion of a roof was ripped off a mobile home and building. Many trees were snapped or uprooted. The tornado lifted near Mudline Road, northwest of Oakland.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:38 UTC and running to 07:26 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 06:10 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 Memphis radar (KNQA), 161 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:13 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 2011 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

209 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 210 of them

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.