EF0 tornado, Sumrall, Mississippi, December 23, 2014

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

December 23, 2014

Touchdown

2:46 PM CST (20:46 UTC)

Lifted

2:47 PM CST (20:47 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.2 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$23,000

County

Lamar County

Touchdown point

31.425, -89.536

Lift-off point

31.426, -89.532

Record number

1412231446-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• numerous trees snapped. Out building collapsed

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

During the afternoon of Dec 23, just enough ingredients came together to support numerous severe storms ahead of a cold front. Across the Lower Mississippi River Valley, peak heating contributed to decent instability in the developing warm sector in advance of the front. Sufficient low level wind shear and strong winds aloft were also in place as a decent upper low was located to our north. This helped to support organized thunderstorm activity along with quite a few supercell storms.||A long lived, persistent, storm tracked across the southeastern counties (near Columbia, Mississippi to Sumrall and Laurel to Heidelberg, Mississippi line) and produced multiple tornadoes. Widespread damage occurred in southern Columbia and near Laurel. Additional damage occurred across Marion, Jones and Clarke counties. Sadly, five confirmed fatalities occurred, with three near Columbia in Marion County and two near Laurel in Jones County. Severe storms moved out of the region by late afternoon to early Tuesday evening. The front continued to track through the area through the evening of December 23.

This tornado briefly touched down in Sumrall. The tin roof of a daycare center and several large limbs were knocked down from this brief tornado touchdown. The estimated wind speed was 70 mph.

This tornado briefly touched down in a subdivision north of Sumrall. Twelve homes received minor roof damage, several fences were damaged, and two trees were downed. The estimated wind speed was 75 mph.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:33 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:53 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:33 UTC and running to 23:20 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 21:30 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), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:47 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

6 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.