Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2012

EF1 tornado, Stronghope to Rockport, Mississippi, January 25, 2012

Name: EF1 tornado, Stronghope to Rockport, Mississippi, January 25, 2012
Start: 2012-01-26T00:49:00.000Z
End: 2012-01-26T00:56:00.000Z
Location: Stronghope to Rockport, Mississippi

From Stronghope to Rockport, this EF1 tornado ran 3.1 miles across Copiah County on January 25, 2012, touching down at 6:49 PM CST and reaching 350 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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: EF1
Date: January 25, 2012
Touchdown: 6:49 PM CST (00:49 UTC)
Lifted: 6:56 PM CST (00:56 UTC)
On the ground: 7 minutes
Path length: 3.1 miles (5.0 km)
Path width: 350 yards (320 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $10,000
County: Copiah County
Touchdown point: 31.740, -90.220
Lift-off point: 31.777, -90.191
Record number: 1201251849-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms developed in association with a cold front moving through the area. Some of these storms produced damaging winds, and one storm produced a tornado in Copiah County. Some flash flooding also occurred.

Trees were snapped and uprooted and one fell across a power line snapping the pole. Part of the tin roof of a barn was damaged also. Maximum wind speeds were estimated at 90 mph.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Jackson, MS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jan 25, 3:39 PM CST, 3 hours 10 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 25, 3:39 PM CST, 3 hours 10 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Jan 25, 1:28 PM CST, 5 hours 21 minutes before

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In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jan 25, 3:42 PM CST, 3 hours 7 minutes before

LAZ024-026-252225-
CONCORDIA LA-CATAHOULA LA-
342 PM CST WED JAN 25 2012

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS
342 PM CST WED JAN 25 2012

A LINE OF STRONG THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING 40 TO 50 MPH
WINDS WAS LOCATED FROM 20 MILES WEST OF AIMWELL TO 39 MILES SOUTHWEST
OF LARTO AT 342 PM CST...MOVING EAST AT 30 MPH.

VERY HEAVY RAIN ALONG WITH CONTINUOUS CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING ARE
ALSO POSSIBLE WITH THESE STORMS.

THESE STORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE RAPIDLY. PEOPLE IN CATAHOULA AND
WEST CENTRAL CONCORDIA PARISHES SHOULD MONITOR THESE STORMS CLOSELY.

LAT...LON 3131 9201 3185 9201 3185 9174 3122 9175
      3122 9179 3126 9183 3129 9191 3128 9194
      3125 9193 3124 9191 3122 9192 3123 9196
      3122 9199 3128 9203
TIME...MOT...LOC 2142Z 269DEG 27KT 3176 9230 3135 9229
          3099 9235

BK

Local storm report, Jan 25, 3:45 PM CST, 3 hours 4 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS
345 PM CST WED JAN 25 2012

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0245 AM     TSTM WND DMG     2 NE MARION             32.45N 88.62W
01/23/2012                   LAUDERDALE         MS   EMERGENCY MNGR

            MOBILE HOME DAMAGED AND TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN ON SAM
            LACKEY ROAD. UPDATE FROM EMERGENCY MANAGER...A FEW TREES
            WERE SNAPPED AND UPROOTED AND THERE WAS SHINGLE DAMAGE TO
            BOTH A MOBILE HOME AND SINGLE FAMILY HOME ROOF.

&&

SWILKINS

Special weather statement, Jan 25, 6:39 PM CST, 10 minutes before

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Local storm report, Jan 25, 6:46 PM CST, 3 minutes before

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The surface observations

Brookhaven (1R7), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:48 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2012 tornado in Mississippi Every tornado in Mississippi since 1950 Warnings in force in Mississippi now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of January 25, 2012

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
January 25	2:58 AM CST	EF1	Travis, TX	1.1	50
January 25	4:15 AM CST	EF0	Bexar, TX	0.3	30
January 25	5:30 AM CST	EF0	Bastrop, TX	2.9	30		$5,000
January 25	6:43 AM CST	EF1	Burleson, TX	2.3	50		$200,000
January 25	7:17 AM CST	EF0	Washington, TX	2.1	50		$30,000
January 25	8:00 AM CST	EF0	Madison, TX	0.5	50		$10,000
January 25	9:06 AM CST	EF0	Walker, TX	0.4	50		$50,000
January 25	9:09 AM CST	EF0	Walker, TX	0.2	25		$30,000
January 25	10:32 AM CST	EF1	Rusk, TX	1.5	175	1	$100,000
January 25	10:47 AM CST	EF0	Rusk, TX	6.5	100
January 25	12:05 PM CST	EF0	Brazoria, TX	0.2	75		$15,000
January 25	12:10 PM CST	EF0	Hardin, TX	2.5	25		$10,000
January 25	12:28 PM CST	EF0	Tyler, TX	0.4	10		$20,000
January 25	12:45 PM CST	EF0	Jasper, TX	1.0	20		$5,000
January 25	12:57 PM CST	EF1	Jasper, TX	1.6	25		$50,000
January 25	1:33 PM CST	EF0	Vernon Parish, LA	3.1	25		$20,000
January 25	2:01 PM CST	EF0	Sabine Parish, LA	2.3	150		$50,000
January 25	2:14 PM CST	EF0	Vernon Parish, LA	1.6	40		$20,000
January 25	3:02 PM CST	EF0	Rapides Parish, LA	1.8	20		$50,000
January 25	3:15 PM CST	EF0	Rapides Parish, LA	0.9	20		$40,000
January 25	3:52 PM CST	EF0	Rapides Parish, LA	1.4	25		$100,000
January 25	4:27 PM CST	EF1	Calcasieu Parish, LA	5.8	25		$100,000
January 25	6:21 PM CST	EF0	Cameron Parish, LA	0.1	10		$10,000
January 25	7:58 PM CST	EF0	Lafayette Parish, LA	0.1	10		$75,000

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.