Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2012

EF0 tornado, Myrick, Mississippi, December 9, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Jones County on December 9, 2012, touching down at 5:20 PM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1,000 of property damage.

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
December 9, 2012
Touchdown
5:20 PM CST (23:20 UTC)
Lifted
5:21 PM CST (23:21 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1,000
County
Jones County
Touchdown point
31.627, -89.011
Lift-off point
31.627, -89.011
Record number
1212091720-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

  • Roof blown off a medal shed
  • Roof blown off a medal shed...picture shows debris blown down wind.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak upper disturbance moved over the region on the evening of December 8th producing a couple stronger storms that dropped hail across Grenada and Leflore Counties. On the afternoon of the 9th an area of showers moving north along the Interstate 59 corridor produced two weak tornadoes as this activity pushed into south central Mississippi. The cells responsible for these tornadoes were very weak and did not even exhibit lightning. Later that night into the next morning a squall line moved across the region causing widespread wind damage, as well as another tornado in Marion County.

A brief tornado touchdown took the medal roof off a building along Weber Jordan Road. Maximum winds were 85 mph.

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.

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 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

11.3 hours before the tornado, 127 km from the path. December 9, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 2012-12-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 18 joules per kilogram, CIN -126, lifted condensation level 842 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 2012-12-09The 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 99 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
18 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-126 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
842 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
135 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z

0.7 hours after it, 127 km from the path. December 10, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2012-12-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 804 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 712 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 2012-12-10The 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 226 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
804 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
547 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
712 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
226 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
257 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
5.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Pine Belt Regional Awos (PIB), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:35 UTC71.666.2170° 6 kt1013.5
21:55 UTC71.666.2160° 6 kt1013.5
22:15 UTC71.666.2140° 6 kt1013.5
22:35 UTC71.666.2110° 3 kt1013.5
22:55 UTC69.866.2170° 6 kt1013.5
23:15 UTC69.866.2160° 8 kt1013.2
23:35 UTC69.866.2170° 6 kt1013.5
23:55 UTC69.864.4170° 6 kt1013.5
00:15 UTC69.866.2160° 6 kt1013.5
00:35 UTC69.866.2160° 7 kt1013.9
00:55 UTC6866.2160° 5 kt1013.5
01:15 UTC6864.4180° 6 kt1013.9

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

The radar

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 117 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:20 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
23:20 UTCTORNADO 08 Se LaurelJones, MSA BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN TOOK THE MEDAL ROOF OFF A BUILDING ALONG WEBER JORDAN ROAD.MAXIMUM WINDS WERE 85 MPH AND MAXIMUM WIDTH WAS 50 YARDS. THE TORNADO WAS RATED EF0.

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 December 9, 2012

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 93:12 PM CSTEF1Ripley, MO0.4150$100,000
December 93:50 PM CSTEF0Pearl River, MS2.520$10,000
December 94:15 PM CSTEF0Lamar, MS0.150$8,000

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.