EF1 tornado, Groveton to Lillian, Mississippi, November 17, 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

November 17, 2015

Touchdown

11:47 PM CST (05:47 UTC)

Lifted

11:51 PM CST (05:51 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$12,000

County

Scott County

Touchdown point

32.479, -89.695

Lift-off point

32.503, -89.653

Record number

1511172347-01

12 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 109 mph.

• Several trees damaged on Baker Rd
• Mobile home destroyed. some trees snapped. tin pealed off a home. poles & lines still standing.
• Old chicken house destroyed, some trees have snapped limbs.
• Few trees down, large limbs.

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

Showers and thunderstorms developed as a strong cold front moved through the region. Some of these storms produced tornadoes, damaging winds and flash flooding.

This tornado touched down just west of Baker Road where several trees were uprooted. The tornado continued into Scott County and impacted a couple of residences at Line Prairie and D. Williams roads. It was at this location where a mobile home was rolled and destroyed. Power poles were left standing and some tin was removed from the roof of another home along with some damage to the shed. Several trees were downed in this area as well. The tornado crossed Highway 481 where an old unused chicken house was heavily damaged. The tornado continued to the northeast and downed numerous trees along Airport Road. The tornado dissipated just after it crossed Highway 13 in Forkville. The estimated maximum wind speed was 110 mph.

This tornado touched down just west of Highway 483 near DS Shoemaker Road and tracked northeast and crossed Hattie-Wallace Road. A few trees were damaged when it started with the heaviest damage along Hattie-Wallace Road. Here multiple trees were snapped or uprooted and across the road. The tornado dissipated just before it reached Highway 13. The estimated maximum wind speed was 90 mph.

This tornado touched down just southeast of Hillsboro-Ludlow Road and tracked northeast for roughly 3 miles to near the Leake County line. Multiple trees were snapped and uprooted at the beginning of the track before the damage became just a couple of trees and limbs downed. The estimated maximum wind speed was 100 mph.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:37 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:45 UTC and running to 09:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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.

Madison (MBO), 41 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), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:48 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.

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

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.