EF2 tornado, Hillsboro to Forest, Mississippi, February 7, 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

February 7, 2017

Touchdown

4:07 PM CST (22:07 UTC)

Lifted

4:17 PM CST (22:17 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.8 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$350,000

County

Scott County

Touchdown point

32.439, -89.525

Lift-off point

32.418, -89.446

Record number

1702071607-01

9 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 115 mph.

• softwood trees uprooted and snapped
• Several trees snapped and uprooted.
• uplift of roof off barn and shed destroyed
• hardwood trees uprooted and on a home. some roofing material removed

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 low pressure system moved through the area. Cold temperatures in the upper atmosphere set the stage for these storms to produce large hail. More robust storms and tornadoes occurred south of the area around New Orleans where a more significant event unfolded. During the afternoon, two tornadoes did occur in Central Mississippi, which actually tracked to the southeast. What was unusual for this event, the majority of the storms moved southeast, which is rare for February.

This tornado began near Hodges Lane, where a couple of small trees were snapped. The tornado continued eastward snapping and uprooting multiple trees along Old Hillsboro Rd. The tornado reached its greatest intensity as it moved across Little River Road and MS Highway 35. In this area, multiple flea market buildings were destroyed. Two residences were damaged, one significantly by a fallen tree. A shed was destroyed and the roof was blown off a barn. Several trees were snapped or uprooted at this location. The tornado continued eastward across Taylor Road, where it damaged a shed and caused additional tree damage. The tornado lifted just east of MS Highway 21, where some tree branches were broken. The maximum estimated winds were 115 mph.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:54 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:48 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:55 UTC and running to 00:14 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 19:58 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), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:09 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

15 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.