EF0 tornado, Vestry to Wade, Mississippi, April 14, 2018

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

April 14, 2018

Touchdown

6:25 PM CDT (23:25 UTC)

Lifted

6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

30.569, -88.716

Lift-off point

30.584, -88.673

Record number

1804141725-01

15 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 95 mph.

• Pine trees snapped on a private property. Time estimated from KMOB SRM data
• Several pine trees 12-15 inch diameter snapped near base.
• Large oak tree about 14--18 inch diameter snapped on Wire Road. Time estimated from KMOB SRM data
• Patch of tree damage apparent on high res satellite imagery from April 17, 2018.

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

A deep upper level low pressure and an associated cold front produced a line of thunderstorms that moved across southeast Louisiana, southern Mississippi and the adjacent coastal waters during the morning and afternoon hours of the 14th. Several reports of tornadoes were received from these storms.

A storm survey indicated a narrow path about 30 to 50 yards wide of sporadic oak and pine trees snapped near the base over a 1.7 mile long easterly track. One shed was damaged or destroyed on private property. Estimated maximum winds of 95 mph. Event time was based on NWS Mobile radar.

An EF-1 tornado touched down in the community of St. Martin, just south of Lemoyne Boulevard, and tracked northeast on an intermittent path ending near the intersection of Interstate 10 and Mississippi Highway 609. The most significant damage occurred at a strip shopping center. Plate glass windows were blown out and a portion of the roof was removed along with a portion of the wall. Several cars were overturned and rolled into the parking lot. Maximum winds were estimated at 105 mph with a path width of 75 yards.

A storm survey found a very confined area of EF-1 damage where several pines and a large oak tree were snapped near the base. Peak winds estimated at 95 mph with a path width of 25 yards. Track may have been longer to the west, but that area was inaccessible due to water and wetlands. Event time was estimated by NWS Mobile radar imagery.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:16 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:43 UTC and running to 00:00 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 20:11 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.

Pascagoula (PQL), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:22 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 2018 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.