EF2 tornado, Lamberts Store to Monticello, Mississippi, December 25, 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

December 25, 2012

Touchdown

3:35 PM CST (21:35 UTC)

Lifted

3:44 PM CST (21:44 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

8.4 miles (13.5 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

7

Property damage

$200,000

County

Lawrence County

Touchdown point

31.516, -90.228

Lift-off point

31.574, -90.103

Record number

1212251535-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

• Roof damage to several \nhomes.
• multiple hardwoods uprooted
• numerous pines and hardwoods snapped and uprooted.
• several pines and oaks snapped and uprooted.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A regional severe weather outbreak unfolded during Christmas Day 2012 as a result of an anomalously strong and southward positioned trough axis over the southern plains and lower Mississippi River valley. Very strong cyclonically curved winds in the mid-levels of the atmosphere near 115 mph and a rapidly deepening surface low over Louisiana and Mississippi aided in strong low-level wind shear and destabilization for severe thunderstorm development. Early Christmas morning, a large elevated rain and thunderstorm shield overspread the entire ArkLaMiss region. A warm front pushed north through southern Louisiana and Mississippi through late morning and through the afternoon while a quickly advancing cold front and developing squall line were occurring across portions of Texas and Louisiana. A Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) Tornado Watch was issued for all of southern Louisiana and Mississippi late Christmas morning for the expected potency of the rotating thunderstorms. Supercells began to develop ahead of the squall line across southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama south of the warm front during the afternoon. With such ample wind and speed shear, strong tornadoes developed that afternoon. The most notable tornadoes in NWS Jackson's area were two EF2 tornadoes in Lawrence and southern Forrest counties that destroyed several mobile homes and campers, snapped power poles, and uprooted or snapped hundreds of trees. Luckily, no fatalities occurred in association with the tornadoes. The tornado damage in Forrest County was part of a 61 mile long tornado that began in Pearl River County Mississippi, where EF-3 damage occurred, and ended in western Greene County. Numerous trees were reported down across much of central Mississippi from the advancing squall line and its damaging straight-line winds. Flash flooding also occurred across many areas leading to road closures. The severe weather and cold front finally cleared Mississippi by early Christmas evening.

The tornado touched down in a wooded area near Trace Road producing mostly tree and minor roof damage to the homes in the area. As it moved to the northeast, the width increased to near 0.25 miles near Ford-Calcote and James Fox Roads producing significant tree damage. As it continued northeast crossing Conley Peavey Road, a carport awning was removed and part of a barn was destroyed, along with more heavy tree damage. As it approached Highway 84, the width decreased to around 1/10 if a mile and the tornado increased in intensity. It was at this time that the tornado was most intense (EF-2) resulting in several mobile homes and travel trailers being lofted and ultimately destroyed. A small business had substantial roof damage with two walls being blown out. An abandoned brick gas station had its roof removed and windows blown out, with the awning support poles bent and awning roof blown away. As the tornado approached Highway 27 northwest of Monticello, more tree damage was noted while it collapsed a patio roof on a house on Friendship Lane just north of Monticello. Minor tree damage occurred along the remainder of the track. Maximum winds were estimated at 120 mph.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:31 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:54 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:01 UTC and running to 23:23 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 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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 Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:34 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

32 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.