EF1 tornado, Clara to Denham, Mississippi, February 10, 2013

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

February 10, 2013

Touchdown

7:14 PM CST (01:14 UTC)

Lifted

7:20 PM CST (01:20 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.1 miles (5.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Wayne County

Touchdown point

31.626, -88.541

Lift-off point

31.642, -88.491

Record number

1302101914-01

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

• Trees snapped and uprooted. 50 yard wide path. minor damage to barns and a couple of small outbuildings destroyed.
• Several trees also snapped midtrunk or uprooted.
• 200 yard wide path of numerous large pine trees snapped or uprooted. Some damage observed to the roofing of an adjacent home (<20 percent of roof affected).
• Apparent end of track. Tornado lifting at this point.

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

Thunderstorms developed ahead of an approaching cold front. Some of the thunderstorms became severe with damaging winds and tornadoes. The storms also produced very heavy rain which caused flash flooding.

The tornado touched down in the southwest portions of Wayne County just south of Strickland Road and just west of Salem Road along Byrd Creek in the Desoto National Forest. The tornado quickly intensified to EF-1 strength as it crossed Shows Road where it damaged the roofs of 2 homes and snapped or uprooted numerous large trees. The tornado overturned camping trailers at a hunting camp off of Fire Road 726 and continued east northeast crossing Pine Grove Road. The tornado weakened to EF-0 strength as it crossed a large section of the Desoto National Forest and Highway 63 approximately 4 miles southwest of Clara where it produced minor damage to the roofs of a few homes...destroyed a few small outbuildings...and topped out trees in an 80 yard wide path. The tornado then quickly re-intensified as it moved across Hudson Town Road and Roy Shoemaker Drive where it widened to 200 yards...snapping numerous large tree pine trees...damaging the roof of one brick home and causing damage to a barn. The tornado crossed Buckatunna Clara Road where it snapped numerous pine trees and caused major damage to 3 homes when pine trees fell on them. The tornado weakened and dissipated near Hutcherson Hutto Road. The storm that produced this tornado also had severe downburst winds on the rear flank downdraft. The rear flank downdraft with this storm uprooted or snapped a wide swath of trees south of the main tornado track.

The tornado touched down near Mallie Bonner Road southwest|of the Denham area where it snapped a few pine trees. The tornado|strengthened quickly and widened to nearly 200 yards wide as it crossed|Denham Progress Road just north of Joe Taylor Road...destroying a single wide|mobile home...damaging the roofs of several wood frame homes...and snapping|or uprooting numerous large trees. The tornado quickly weakened and|dissipated as it crossed Joe Taylor Road. This tornado was produced by the|same supercell thunderstorm that produced the Clara tornado a few minutes|earlier.

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

48 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:26 UTC, 48 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:15 UTC and running to 05:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:54 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.

Pine Belt Regional Awos (PIB), 80 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:14 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.

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 2013 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.