Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2012

EF0 tornado, Splunge, Mississippi, February 1, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Monroe County on February 1, 2012, touching down at 8:14 PM CST and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 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
February 1, 2012
Touchdown
8:14 PM CST (02:14 UTC)
Lifted
8:15 PM CST (02:15 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$25,000
County
Monroe County
Touchdown point
33.974, -88.229
Lift-off point
33.975, -88.227
Record number
1202012014-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front moved into North Mississippi during the late afternoon and evening hours of February 1, 2012. Showers and thunderstorms developed out ahead of the front. Some of these storms became severe producing damaging winds, large hail and an isolated tornado.

A tornado briefly touched down along Sipsey-Detroit Road near Sipsey Fork, just west of the Mississippi-Alabama Border. The tornado moved northeast for approximately 200 yards. A single family home sustained minor damage which included the collapse of a carport. An awning of a mobile home was blown off. The mobile home also sustained damage from a shed that was lifted up by the tornado and thrown into the mobile home. The shed was destroyed as well as a nearby chicken coop. Several cedar trees were blown over or snapped.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:00 UTC and running to 02:34 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:00 UTC02:34 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchMEG
01:26 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
10:00 UTC14:44 UTCDense Fog AdvisoryMEG

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:23 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 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.

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 00:00Z

2.2 hours before the tornado, 161 km from the path. February 2, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 2012-02-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -38, lifted condensation level 449 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, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 2012-02-02The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 67 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-38 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
449 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
67 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-10 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z

9.8 hours after it, 161 km from the path. February 2, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 2012-02-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 577 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 2012-02-02The 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 13 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
577 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Aberdeen (M40), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:15 UTC64.464.4 1018.6
00:35 UTC64.464.4 1019
00:55 UTC66.266.2 1018.6
01:15 UTC66.266.2 1019.3
01:35 UTC66.266.2 1019.3
01:55 UTC64.464.4 1021+RA

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

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 13 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:14 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
01:46 UTCTSTM WND DMGN AberdeenMonroe, MSROOF DAMAGE TO A STORE ALONG HWY 145 NORTH IN ABERDEEN.
01:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 S AmoryMonroe, MSSEVERAL TREES DOWN ACROSS HIGHWAY 25 SOUTH OF BECKER
02:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGSw QuincyMonroe, MSPOWER LINES DOWN BETWEEN ATHENS AND QUINCY.
02:12 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Se SplungeMonroe, MSDAMAGE TO A MOBILE HOME AND DAMAGE TO OUTDOOR STORAGE BUILDINGS ON SIPSEY-DETROIT ROAD A MILE AND A HALF WEST OF THE ALABAMA STATE BORDER.

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 February 1, 2012

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 112:30 AM CSTEF0Allen Parish, LA3.720$20,000

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.