EF2 tornado, Dean Griffin Mem Arp to Bond, 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

3:45 PM CST (21:45 UTC)

Lifted

3:50 PM CST (21:50 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

8.0 miles (12.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Stone County

Touchdown point

30.839, -89.341

Lift-off point

30.910, -89.234

Record number

1212251545-01

51 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR and NWS JAN and NWS LIX and NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• A few snapped and uprooted pine trees
• Considerable tree damage along Ashe Nursery Rd. Multiple pine trees snapped or uprooted.
• A home along Ashe Nursery Rd had its roof partially shifted and broken windows. A small shed behind the home was blown apart, and debris were blown as far as 250 yards across a field behind the home. Two cars at this location were moved about 25 feet. Several trees uprooted or snapped in the area.
• Tree fell through a house, destroying it.

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

A powerful storm system moved out of the plains on|Christmas, producing numerous strong storms across southeast|Mississippi, southwest Alabama, and the western Florida panhandle|out ahead of a strong cold front and accompanying squall line. Multiple|tornadoes, some long track, were observed along the central gulf coast|region. A total of eight tornadoes were observed across the NWS Mobile |county warning area.

The tornado moved from northeast Pearl River county into|extreme northwest Stone county causing significant damage to a few|homes on Magnolia Road. It crossed Highway 26...snapping numerous pine|trees in the lake Tac-O-Leen campground. The tornado continued northeast|destroying a manufactured home on Will Lee road and heavily damaging|several frame houses. A manufactured home was also rolled into a frame|house. Emergency Management also reported trees down on Progress Road|before the tornado exited Stone County into Forrest County. This tornado|segment in Stone County is part of a 61 mile long track tornado that|went from central Pearl River County to western Greene County Mississippi.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:29 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:51 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:58 UTC and running to 00:40 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 Mobile radar (KMOB), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:45 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.