EF1 tornado, Thomastown to Dowell, Mississippi, April 13, 2019

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

April 13, 2019

Touchdown

7:35 PM CDT (00:35 UTC)

Lifted

7:43 PM CDT (00:43 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

4.9 miles (7.8 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Crop damage

$20,000

County

Leake County

Touchdown point

32.852, -89.652

Lift-off point

32.915, -89.614

Record number

1904131835-01

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 EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• numerous trees, these or in woods, east side of road

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

During the late afternoon of April 13 and into the evening and overnight, a strong spring storm system pushed across the Lower Mississippi Valley region and brought widespread severe weather, a regional tornado outbreak, and flash flooding. This event started over eastern Texas and steadily pushed eastward into the evening and overnight. Storms associated with this system started as a few line clusters then evolved into a full blown linear complex. Within this line, smaller bowing segments formed and it was these features that supported the regional outbreak of tornadoes. A total of 20 tornadoes occurred across our forecast area, six of which were rated as strong (EF2). In addition to the tornadoes, several reports of large hail were received along with many instances of wind damage. Heavy rainfall was also impactful and multiple inches of rain quickly fell across some locations and caused flash flooding, some of it extensive.

This tornado started on the Highway 429 bridge at the Yockanookany River. Here a number of trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado then continued north northeast through the wooded river bottom east of the Natchez Trace Parkway. At a point, the western portion of the tornado touched the Trace. Here numerous trees were uprooted and snapped. You can see from this point, extensive tree damage to the east. Based off the radar and the debris signature, the tornado continued just a bit more to the north-northeast before dissipating. Maximum estimated winds were 95 mph.

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 19:23 UTC and running to 04:58 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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.

Winona (5A6), 65 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:36 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 2019 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

35 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.