EF1 tornado, Bush to Weathersby, 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

2:02 PM CST (20:02 UTC)

Lifted

2:12 PM CST (20:12 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

9.4 miles (15.2 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Simpson County

Touchdown point

31.884, -89.977

Lift-off point

31.952, -89.838

Record number

1701021402-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• 2 buildings with roof dmg, signs down, trees snapped. tin thrown across hwy 49
• numerous trees snapped, 2 on homes causing roof dmg.
• significant trees dmg along hwy 13 with power lines down.
• trees snapped & chicken houses dmg, barn destroyed

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

As a warm front was draped across the region, an upper level disturbance moved across and brought heavy rain and some severe storms during the morning. The storm system developed further during the afternoon and a squall line formed ahead of an approaching cold front. This helped to bring tornadoes and additional severe weather to the region during the afternoon hours.

This tornado started just west of Pinola and crossed Highway 28 as it tracked northeast for roughly 10 miles. The heaviest damage was along Highway 43 and Highway 13 where substantial tree damage occurred with many trees snapped and uprooted. Several homes sustained roof damage or damage due to trees on the structure. Four large sheds were heavily damaged. A chicken farm had 4 houses with moderate damage to mainly the roofs. The tornado passed just on the south side of Mendenhall and crossed Highway 49. Here more trees were damaged along with two structures sustaining roof damage. The tornado dissipated just after crossing Highway 49. The maximum estimated wind speeds were 110mph.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:22 UTC and running to 21:02 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 20:04 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), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:04 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

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.