EF3 tornado, Bissell to Hazeldell, Mississippi, April 28, 2014

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

April 28, 2014

Touchdown

2:38 PM CDT (19:38 UTC)

Lifted

3:20 PM CDT (20:20 UTC)

On the ground

42 minutes

Path length

31.0 miles (49.8 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

32

Property damage

$18 million

Counties

Lee, Itawamba and Prentiss counties

Touchdown point

34.226, -88.824

Lift-off point

34.472, -88.371

Record number

1404281338-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MEG, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 152 mph.

• Lots of trees down at end of track.

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

A warm front lifted slowly through North Mississippi during the early evening of April 27, 2014. The airmass south of the warm front was very unstable and a couple of supercells developed along the warm front over Northwest Mississippi with damaging winds and large hail. The warm front lifted north of North Mississippi leaving a very unstable airmass behind. A sutble upper level disturbance triggered thunderstorm developoment during the early morning hours of April 28, 2014. These thunderstorms eventually developed into a mesoscale convective system that tracked across much of Northwest Mississippi with a few reports of large hail and damaging winds. Later that same day an approaching cold front combined with a potent upper level disturbance to trigger supercells across Northeast Mississippi. This resulted in a strong tornado that tracked near Tupelo, Mississippi and several reports of large hail.

A tornado touched down near the Pontotoc County line west of Tupelo. The tornado strengthened as it moved into Tupelo reaching a peak intensity along Clayton Avenue and Country Club Road and in the commercial area along North Gloster from Hillcrest Drive to North Green Street. The Joyner Elementary School and Maintenance Shop suffered major damage. Maximum winds were estimated at 150 mph. A woman was killed when her vehicle hydroplaned and hit a tree during the storm. The tornado continued northeast and caused significant damage near Elvis Presley Lake including toppling a 400 foot communication tower. 84 homes were destroyed in Lee County while 169 homes suffered major damage. 351 other homes had minor damage. Six mobile homes were destroyed. Nine mobile homes had major damage while 6 others had minor damage. 17 businesses were destroyed while 9 suffered major damage. The tornado then tracked into Itawamba County.

A tornado moved from Lee County into Northwest Itawamba County. The tornado tracked across rural parts of Itawamba County before moving into Prentiss County. Ten homes were destroyed in Itawamba County while 29 homes suffered major damage. 107 other homes had minor damage. 14 mobile homes were destroyed and 17 had major damage. 30 other mobile homes suffered minor damage.

The tornado tracked from Itawamba County into Prentiss County and quickly lifted in a rural area resulting in minimal additional damage.

The deaths

0 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:32 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:43 UTC and running to 01:56 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 16:46 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.

Tupelo (TUP), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:39 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 2014 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

52 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.