EF0 tornado, (Bix)Keesler Afb Bil, Mississippi, August 30, 2017

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

August 30, 2017

Touchdown

1:46 AM CDT (06:46 UTC)

Lifted

1:48 AM CDT (06:48 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Harrison County

Touchdown point

30.396, -88.912

Lift-off point

30.398, -88.912

Record number

1708300046-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Several trees along path uprooted, others snapped. One stand of trees was bent to the NNE along Pointe Aux Chenes Rd.
• Large hardwood uprooted and landed across homeowner's vehicle, punctured the garage roof and clipped the neighbor's roof, causing damage. Some evidence of shingles removed on the east end of building on Keesler AFB across the train tracks, but undetermined if from latest event or from a past storm.
• Evidence of damage along the immediate shore with return side debris, trampoline blown to the SW and other indicators on the west side of the track.
• Some of the more concentrated damage was along N 6th St wtih several homes having a few shingles removed, several trees uprooted or large branches snapped. Light objects tossed, some tin in trees, fences blown over.

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

As Hurricane Harvey struck southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, outer rain bands moved across southeast Louisiana, southern Mississippi and the adjacent coastal waters on several occasions between the 28th and 30th of August. Several tornadoes were reported across the area as well as instances of flooding.

A tornado touched down one block north of US Highway 90 on Fr. Ryan Street. The storm proceeded northward through Keesler Circle with minor tree damage. The last home in the back of the circle had a large hardwood tree uprooted, which damaged two homes and a vehicle, and moved to the southern edge of Keesler AFB and lifted. A small tree was blown down on the AFB. Estimated maximum wind speed 80 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:34 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 Mobile radar (KMOB), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:45 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

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.