EF2 tornado, Bentonia to Fordyke, Mississippi, April 30, 2017

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 30, 2017

Touchdown

8:54 AM CDT (13:54 UTC)

Lifted

9:17 AM CDT (14:17 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

21.7 miles (34.9 km)

Path width

1,700 yards (1554 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2.3 million

Crop damage

$200,000

County

Yazoo County

Touchdown point

32.654, -90.320

Lift-off point

32.858, -90.036

Record number

1704300754-01

241 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

• numerous trees snapped and uprooted
• about 40 trees snapped and uprooted
• tin shed completely destroyed
• maybe 100+ trees snapped. no damage to homes

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

During the early morning hours of April 30th, a squall line of severe thunderstorms developed across central Louisiana and pushed eastward across the ArkLaMiss. The line intensified as it approached the Mississippi River and caused wind damage and tornadoes. As the convective system evolved into Mississippi, numerous tornadoes developed along the advancing line, with the most prolific damage occurring along the track of a large meso-scale convective vortex (MCV). This feature tracked roughly from Claiborne County through western Hinds/Madison, eastern Yazoo, eastern Holmes, southeastern Carroll, Montgomery, and northwestern Webster counties. This corridor is where the most significant damage occurred, as well as one fatality. Flash flooding, hail, and other wind damage occurred as these storms moved through.

This tornado touched down just east of Highway 49, and traveled northeast across mainly undeveloped land, along the Big Black River through southern Yazoo County and northern Madison County. The tornado snapped and uprooted trees along its path, including one large tree limb which fell onto a home. The tornado dissipated between Jubilee Road and the Big Black River. Total path length was 5 miles.

This strong tornado started east of Bentonia near Indian Creek where minor tree damage was noted and continued to travel along a path just north of the Big Black River. The tornado caused minor structural damage along Scotland Road, where it also downed hundreds of trees. The tornado was strongest as it crossed Trail End Road, where it snapped wooden power poles, caused minor structural damage and snapped and uprooted nearly 1000 trees. A tin roof was ripped completely off of a mobile home along Linwood Rd in the Berryville Community. Tree damage was also surveyed along near and along I-55 near and north of the Vaughan exit. The tornado crossed over I-55 before dissipating south of Pickens. The maximum estimated winds with this tornado was 120 mph.

This EF-1 tornado started just north of MS Highway 16 in Yazoo County. It uprooted and snapped trees as it approached the Linwood Community. While progressing through the Linwood Community, it caused damage to several structures including removing the entire tin roof from a home on Black Jack Road, damaging a mobile home on Vaughan Road, and damaging the awnings at the Linwood Gin. The tornado was responsible for a tree falling on a house on Pepper Wilson Road. It continued to cause damage on Bennett Road, before it dissipated prior to Interstate 55. The estimated wind speed with this tornado was 110 mph.

This strong tornado started several miles west of Pickens off Highway 432 and tracked northeast for roughly 23 miles. The tornado impacted areas west of Goodman, Holmes County State Park and a direct hit on the town of Durant. The tornado was very wide and was roughly 1.2 miles wide at its widest point. Across the entire path, thousands of trees were damaged/uprooted/snapped. Hundreds of power poles and power lines were down as well. The large majority of structures that were damaged were indicated by minor to moderate roof damage with singles/siding torn off to partial loss of decking. Multiple structures were more heavily damaged by trees falling on them. Some of the more significant tree and structural damage occurred along Courts Road, Salem Road, Ebenezer Pickens Road and Jordan Road. Four mobile homes were destroyed along Jordan Road, including a new, well secured, mobile home. Significant tree damage also occurred along Highway 51 and along State Park Road just west of Highway 51. The town of Durant took a direct hit. Many buildings and homes sustained minor to moderate roof damage. A few less sound structures were destroyed. Numerous power lines were also down. The tornado continued a bit further to the northeast before dissipating. The total path length was 23.4 miles.

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

41 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:13 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 12:34 UTC and running to 16:57 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 13:00 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.

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:52 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 2017 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

42 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.