EF2 tornado, Hamilton to Smithville, 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 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

April 13, 2019

Touchdown

11:06 PM CDT (04:06 UTC)

Lifted

11:23 PM CDT (04:23 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

11.3 miles (18.2 km)

Path width

800 yards (732 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

19

Property damage

$3.0 million

County

Monroe County

Touchdown point

33.725, -88.441

Lift-off point

33.876, -88.381

Record number

1904132206-01

105 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MEG, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• High tension power lines destroyed by tornado.

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

A surface wave along a slow moving cold front produced several facets of severe weather, including flooding, damaging winds and tornadoes across northern Mississippi during the evening of April 13th.

The tornado developed just south of Hamilton, MS and rapidly increased in intensity. Substantial damage to residences and outbuildings occurred along Seely Drive south of Hamilton Road. Numerous trees were uprooted or trunks snapped along the track. A tree fell on a mobile home on Center Hill Road north of Hamilton killing the resident. The tornado continued north-northeast, uprooting trees and causing minor structural damage. The tornado dissipated near West Road. Three injuries were also reported. Peak winds were estimated at 130 mph.

Tornado occurred mostly in forested areas. Several homes received primarily roof damage. Several transmission line towers were destroyed approximately 2 miles north of Highway 278. Peak winds were estimated near 115 mph.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:06 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:14 UTC and running to 06:16 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 01:00 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.

Aberdeen (M40), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 13 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:07 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.