EF1 tornado, Centreville to Ariel, 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 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

December 25, 2012

Touchdown

2:31 PM CST (20:31 UTC)

Lifted

2:38 PM CST (20:38 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.4 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$250,000

Counties

Wilkinson and Amite counties

Touchdown point

31.078, -91.067

Lift-off point

31.100, -91.020

Record number

1212251431-01

13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

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

A strong low pressure system moving across the middle Mississippi River Valley drove a strong cold front through the area. A squall line developed ahead of the cold front with isolated supercells ahead of the squall line. Multiple reports of severe weather were received.

The tornado first touched down south of Highway 24, just east of the intersection of Highway 33 and Highway 24 on the south side of Centreville. Initially, numerous soft wood trees and a few hard woods were snapped and uprooted, and a few power poles lost their crossmembers. The tornado quickly moved to the east-northeast across Highway 24 uprooting another 6 to 10 trees, one of which clipped a house, bringing down much of the east facing wall. The tornado was 170-200 yards wide at this point and continued into the town of Centreville. A tire service station lost most of its canopy with the columns still standing, and the Centreville Head Start lost its metal awning.||The tornado crossed Fort Street with many more trees coming down, one on top of a car. Also along Fort Street, a single-wide mobile home lost most of its exterior walls. On East Howard Street, another tree fell into a house, pinning and injuring a lady. The tornado continued to the east-northeast, leading to another area of significant tree damage, uprooting and snapping numerous hard woods. A residence had minor structural damage leading to the carport partially collapsing. The tornado moved along Highway 48 for about another mile causing light tree damage before lifting. Times were based on radar and eyewitness reports. Maximum wind speed was estimated at 105 mph.

The tornado first touched down south of Highway 24, just east of the intersection of Highway 33 and Highway 24 on the south side of Centreville. Initially, numerous soft wood trees and a few hard woods were snapped and uprooted, and a few power poles lost their crossmembers. The tornado quickly moved to the east-northeast across Highway 24 uprooting another 6 to 10 trees, one of which clipped a house, bringing down much of the east facing wall. The tornado was 170-200 yards wide at this point and continued into the town of Centreville. A tire service station lost most of its canopy with the columns still standing, and the Centreville Head Start lost its metal awning.||The tornado crossed Fort Street with many more trees coming down, one on top of a car. Also along Fort Street, a single-wide mobile home lost most of its exterior walls. On East Howard Street, another tree fell into a house, pinning and injuring a lady. The tornado continued to the east-northeast, leading to another area of significant tree damage, uprooting and snapping numerous hard woods. A residence had minor structural damage leading to the carport partially collapsing. The tornado moved along Highway 48 for about another mile causing light tree damage before lifting. Times were based on radar and eyewitness reports. Maximum wind speed was estimated at 105 mph.

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

39 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:52 UTC, 39 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:58 UTC and running to 21:56 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.

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.