EF1 tornado, Enon to Darbun, Mississippi, December 20, 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 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

December 20, 2017

Touchdown

6:35 AM CST (12:35 UTC)

Lifted

6:50 AM CST (12:50 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

9.9 miles (16.0 km)

Path width

80 yards (73 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Walthall County

Touchdown point

31.281, -90.204

Lift-off point

31.329, -90.047

Record number

1712200635-01

28 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Trees displaced on high res satellite imagery.
• Minor tree damage on high resolution satellite imagery.
• A few trees displaced on high resolution satellite imagery.
• Several trees displaced on high resolution satellite imagery.

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

Low pressure moving through the Lower Mississippi River Valley triggered a line of thunderstorms that moved through southwest Mississippi and southeast Louisiana during the early morning hours of the 20th. An isolated tornado was reported over southwest Mississippi.

A tornado touched down just east of the intersection of Mannings Crossing Rd and MS Hwy 583 in rural Walthall County, MS. The tornado produced increasingly more apparent tree damage on high resolution satellite imagery as it crossed Jayess Rd. The walls of a shed collapsed and a manufactured home slid off its foundation at Thornhill Rd as the tornado continued to intensify. Sections of forest were damaged near Hammond Rd consistent with low to mid range EF-1 tornadoes (90-100 mph). The defined path of tree damage continued eastward on high resolution satellite imagery across Hope and Coleman roads before the again caused EF-1 tornado damage to sections of forest near Atley Holmes Rd. Additional EF-1 damage was identified in inaccessible areas north of Sauls Rd. The tornado then gradually weakened as it crossed James Ratcliff Rd and Dan Holmes Rd. The tornado evidently lifted over inaccessible areas south of E Sartinville Rd, just prior to crossing the county line into Marion County.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:32 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.

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.