Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2012

EF0 tornado, Goshen Spgs, Mississippi, August 19, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Rankin County on August 19, 2012, touching down at 6:45 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
August 19, 2012
Touchdown
6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)
Lifted
7:00 PM CDT (00:00 UTC)
On the ground
15 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Rankin County
Touchdown point
32.489, -89.981
Lift-off point
32.488, -89.980
Record number
1208191745-01

What the Weather Service recorded

On the evening of August 19th, a very rare waterspout developed over the Ross Barnett Reservoir. The waterspout lasted for about 15 minutes before dissipating.

On the evening of August 19th, a very rare waterspout developed over the Ross Barnett Reservoir. According to pictures and eyewitness accounts, the waterspout occurred over the upper end of the reservoir just to the west of the Goshen Springs community, southwest of the MS Highway 43 Pearl River crossing. The waterspout was associated with a developing rain shower, and initially there was little or no precipitation occurring in the area when it developed around 6:45pm CDT. The waterspout remained nearly stationary for about 10 to 15 minutes before dissipating.

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

The warnings

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:51 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningJAN

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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

11.8 hours before the tornado, 21 km from the path. August 19, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 2012-08-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 414 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 464 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 2012-08-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
414 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
603 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
464 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z

0.2 hours after it, 21 km from the path. August 20, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2012-08-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 194 joules per kilogram, CIN -43, lifted condensation level 1330 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2012-08-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
194 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-43 J/kg
Surface CAPE
642 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1330 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
4 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Jackson/Thompson (JAN), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:54 UTC8168180° 7 kt1011.5
22:54 UTC8068200° 3 kt1011.5
23:54 UTC79700° 0 kt1011.5
00:54 UTC77720° 0 kt1011.9

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 23 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:43 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:45 UTCWATER SPOUT2 W Goshen SpringsRankin, MSNUMEROUS REPORTS OF A WATER SPOUT OVER THE ROSS BARNETT RESERVOIR.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 19, 2012

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 192:19 PM EDTEF0Dare, NC0.020

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.