EF1 tornado, Arbo, Mississippi, January 3, 2015

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

January 3, 2015

Touchdown

2:36 PM CST (20:36 UTC)

Lifted

2:39 PM CST (20:39 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Covington County

Touchdown point

31.680, -89.680

Lift-off point

31.697, -89.655

Record number

1501031436-01

6 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 110 mph.

• trees snapped. weaker than to the SW.

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

During the afternoon of January 3rd, a strong upper level low was moving through the central Plains and a cold front began to move into the region. Across the Lower Mississippi River Valley, peak heating and upper 60s to low 70s dewpoints contributed to decent instability in the developing warm sector in advance of the front. Strong low level wind shear and winds aloft were in place, which made a favorable environment for tornadoes. This helped to support widespread thunderstorms along with a few supercell storms.||A long lived, persistent, storm tracked across the southeastern counties (Lawrence, Jefferson Davis, Covington, Jasper and Lauderdale County) and produced eight tornadoes. Considerable damage occurred in Jasper County, north of Rose Hill, and also near Mount Olive in Covington County and Meehan and Bailey in Lauderdale County. Severe storms moved out of the region by early Saturday evening. The front slowly moved to the east through the area through the evening of January 3rd.||In addition to the severe storms and tornadoes, widespread flooding occurred in southeast Mississippi where 3-5 inches of rain fell. Record amounts of moisture for the month of January were observed in the evening weather balloon sounding at the Jackson International Airport, where precipitable water value of 1.74 inches tied the record last set on January 3, 1973. This led to widespread heavy rainfall and flooding. Water covered some roads and water was entering homes near Bay Springs, with one road washed out nearby.

The tornado began along Sunset Road, where the roof of a mobile home was damaged. It continued northeast and snapped trees along Cooley Spring-Coulter Road and Stroud Road before it lifted. The estimated maximum wind speed was 90 mph.

This tornado snapped numerous trees along its path from the east end of Stroud Road. It moved east northeast across Burtons Creek Road. It lifted near Rock Hill Road. The most impressive tree damage occurred along Burtons Creek Road and this is where it reached its peak intensity. The estimated wind speed was 110 mph.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:25 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:06 UTC and running to 00:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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), 40 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), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:33 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 2015 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

13 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.