EF2 tornado, Pascagoula, Mississippi, August 30, 2012

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

August 30, 2012

Touchdown

7:10 AM CDT (12:10 UTC)

Lifted

7:12 AM CDT (12:12 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

30.344, -88.553

Lift-off point

30.355, -88.549

Record number

1208300610-01

Hurricane Isaac entered the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm on August 26, moving northwest after crossing Haiti, Cuba and the Florida Straits. Isaac moved slowly north northwest over the eastern Gulf . Isaac strengthened into a hurricane on the morning of the 28th when it was 75 miles south southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Isaac made landfall in Plaquemines Parish as a Category 1 Hurricane near Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River on the evening of the 28th. A second landfall occurred near Port Fourchon the following morning. The storm weakened to a tropical storm on the afternoon of the 29th about 50 miles west southwest of New Orleans, and weakened further to a tropical depression on the afternoon of the 30th near Monroe, Louisiana. ||Even though Issac was of hurricane status from near the mouth of the Mississippi River into southeast Louisiana, only tropical storm force winds were recorded on land areas of Mississippi. The maximum sustained wind in south Mississippi was 46 knots or 53 mph measured at the Gulfport Airport (KGPT) during the early afternoon of August 29th. A portable weather station (Weatherflow Inc) near Gulfport measured a 48 knot gust, or 55 mph, late on the morning of August 29. Maximum wind gust of 58 knots or 67 mph was recorded at the NOAA NOS Bay Waveland station and also at Gulfport (Weatherflow Inc) late on the morning of Aug 29. The long duration of tropical storm force winds downed some trees and power lines across the region. ||The minimum sea level pressure measured from a land station was 995.9 mb the NOAA-NOS station at Bay-Waveland station during the early morning of Aug 29th. |A storm tide ranged from approximately 5 feet in Jackson County to nearly 10 feet in Hancock County closer to Isaacs���s center. These values are approximately 3 to 8 feet above normal astronomical values. Storm surge flooding impacts were greatest in Hancock County.| |Persistent rainbands affected south Mississippi, especially the coastal sections produced heavy rainfall over a three day period. 10 to 20 inches of rainfall was common across the region. A co-operative observer near Pascagaoula recorded the maximum reading of 22.20 inches of rain. Heavy rainfall produced both flash flooding and later moderate to major river flooding. Record crests were observed on the Wolf River near Landon (Aug 31) and Gulfport (Sep 1), and the East Hobolochitto River near Cesear (Aug 31). Storm surge and high tides restricted outflow of the rivers near the coast and lakes exacerbating flooding of low lying areas along rivers and bayous near the coast as they emptied into the Gulf.||There were two weak tornadoes documented that occurred along Mississippi coast which resulted in generally minor property damage.||Overall , impacts from Isaac resulted in at least $7 million in damages in south Mississippi and one direct fatality. Much of the damage in the coastal counties of Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson, damage was related to storm surge on the coast, flash flooding, or river flooding. There will likely be adjustments in the damages as additional information and assessments are made. There was one direct fatality in south Mississippi on morning of Aug 30 when a tree fell on a tow truck killing the 52 year old male driver.

A tornado touched down in the south portion of Pascagoula. Most of the damage was consistent with EF-1 scale damage consisting of downed trees and light structural damage to a few houses. A small area of significant damage...EF-2...occurred where nearly all of the roof of a large house was blown off. Path length 0.7 miles. Path width 40 yards.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:50 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 04:45 UTC and running to 12:15 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 04:32 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.

Pascagoula (PQL), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:11 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 2012 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.