Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2016

EF0 tornado, Vidalia to Ligana, Mississippi, December 13, 2016

From Vidalia to Ligana, this EF0 tornado ran 4.3 miles across Hancock and Harrison counties on December 13, 2016, touching down at 3:19 PM CST and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
December 13, 2016
Touchdown
3:19 PM CST (21:19 UTC)
Lifted
3:27 PM CST (21:27 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
4.3 miles (7.0 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Hancock and Harrison counties
Touchdown point
30.516, -89.368
Lift-off point
30.516, -89.295
Record number
1612131519-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A stationary front provided the focus for the development of isolated severe thunderstorms near the Pearl River Basin.

A tornado touched down just east of Standard Cemetary Road in Hancock County. The storm moved eastward causing intermittent damage to trees before crossing the county line into Harrison County near Bell Creek Road. Estimated wind speed 75 mph. Event times estimated by radar.

A tornado moved from Hancock County into Harrison County near Bell Creek Road. Once in Harrison County, the tornado continued to cause intermittent damage, mainly to trees. It also peeled a small section of roofing off of a mobile home on Bell Creek Road and caused minor damage to two additional mobile homes on Cemetary Road just east of the Wolf River before lifting. Total path length of tornado was 4.3 miles. Estimated wind speed 75 mph. Event times estimated by radar.

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

The warnings

18 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:01 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
07:11 UTC14:56 UTCDense Fog AdvisoryLIX
20:41 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLIX
20:54 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLIX
21:01 UTC21:30 UTCTornado WarningLIX
21:23 UTC21:32 UTCTornado WarningLIX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:27 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 air that afternoon

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.

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 12:00Z

9.3 hours before the tornado, 46 km from the path. December 13, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2016-12-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 555 joules per kilogram, CIN -31, lifted condensation level 519 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2016-12-13The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 180 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
555 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Surface CAPE
37 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
519 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
225 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 46 km from the path. December 14, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2016-12-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 210 joules per kilogram, CIN -60, lifted condensation level 666 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2016-12-14The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -96 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
210 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-60 J/kg
Surface CAPE
197 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
666 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-96 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.1
Supercell composite
-1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:50 UTCHAIL 1PicayunePearl River, MSDELAYED TRANSMISSION
21:21 UTCTSTM WND DMG12 W LymanHarrison, MSROOF DAMAGE TO A STRUCTURE ALONG BELL CREEK ROAD NEAR THE HARRISON/HANCOCK COUNTY LINE... POSSIBLE TORNADO. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
21:21 UTCTORNADO 012 W LymanHarrison, MSINTERMITTENT TORNADO DAMAGE ALONG BELL CREEK ROAD NEAR THE HARRISON/HANCOCK COUNTY LINE... LIGHT TREE AND STRUCTURE DAMAGE. PATH LENGTH 4.3 MILES... WIDTH 20 YARDS... 75 MPH WINDS. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.