EF1 tornado, Street to Gillisburg, Mississippi, January 2, 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

January 2, 2017

Touchdown

1:23 PM CST (19:23 UTC)

Lifted

1:29 PM CST (19:29 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.3 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Amite County

Touchdown point

31.066, -90.799

Lift-off point

31.071, -90.704

Record number

1701021323-01

23 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 110 mph.

• Large tree visible uprooted on high res satellite imagery.
• Large tree visibly displaced on high res satellite imagery.
• Defined 90 yard swath of trees damaged/displaced on high res satellite imagery.
• Patch of minor tree damage on high res 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 from central Texas into Tennessee combined with a very unstable airmass to produce widespread thunderstorms across southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi. Numerous reports of severe weather were received, including several tornadoes.

The damage path of a short-lived EF-1 tornado was identified on high resolution satellite imagery in rural southern Amite County, MS. This tornado began northwest of the intersection of Powell Rd and Street Rd where it displaced a few trees. The tornado then crossed Street Rd and moved over inaccessible forested areas near the West Fork Amite River where it produced a defined swath of tree damage evident on high resolution satellite imagery that was approximately 90 yards wide. The damage path then became more sparse and less defined after it crossed the river and only minor tree damage was identified which is where the tornado was estimated to have lifted.

The damage path of a strong EF-1 tornado was identified on high resolution satellite imagery over rural southern Amite County, MS. A defined path of tree damage began just east of S Greensburg Rd and moved eastward where tree damage gradually became more significant as it crossed a few small rural roads. The tornado peaked in intensity with sustained winds of approximately 110 mph near the East Fork Amite River where larger swaths (150 yards wide) were identified via high resolution satellite imagery. The tornado gradually weakened as it crossed River Rd causing smaller swaths of uprooted/damaged trees, and it's estimated the tornado lifted south of Bennet Rd as there was no further conclusive damage evident beyond this point.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:24 UTC and running to 20:20 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 16:28 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

38 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.