EF2 tornado, Campbell to Gwinville, Mississippi, December 16, 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

December 16, 2019

Touchdown

4:44 PM CST (22:44 UTC)

Lifted

5:00 PM CST (23:00 UTC)

On the ground

16 minutes

Path length

10.7 miles (17.2 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$585,000

Counties

Lawrence and Jefferson Davis counties

Touchdown point

31.616, -90.008

Lift-off point

31.695, -89.853

Record number

1912161644-01

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

• 6 chicken house dmg, 1 destroyed
• 3 chicken house dmg, 1 heavy on back half
• Nissan truck thrown here as well

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

A well defined, positively-tilted trough existed across the Southern Plains and at the surface, a cold front was progressing across Arkansas and Louisiana, while an intensifying area of low pressure propagated northeast along the boundary. Discrete supercells developed in the morning on December 16 and moved northeast, spawning multiple strong tornadoes over northeast Louisiana and south Mississippi. These storms produced a total of 10 tornadoes.

This tornado started just north-northwest of the town of Silver Creek off of Stephens Cemetery Road and then crossed Highway 43. A barn and shed were initially damaged along with some downed trees. Damage to trees increased along Highway 43 with several snapped. The tornado then moved into the Silver Creek bottom then crossed Daughdrill Road. where more trees were snapped/uprooted along with downed power lines. One home had minor roof damage with a group of 3 chicken houses damaged, and one house destroyed. The tornado then crossed into Jefferson Davis County and intensified. As it crossed Spring Hill Church Road, trees and power lines were down. One home on blocks was destroyed. An area of woods adjacent to the home sustained significant tree damage where all the trees were snapped in a focused corridor from what appears to be an intense vortex. An EF2 rating was given here. The tornado then crossed Zion Hill Church Road, although the tornado weakened a bit at this point, it still snapped and uprooted numerous trees. The tornado then moved along Gholar Road. In this location, the tornado transitioned and took a hard right. While doing so, another intense vortex occurred within otherwise standard EF0, EF1 tree damage. The noted vortex destroyed a mobile home and threw a Nissan truck about 30 yds; one injury occurred here as the person was in the mobile home and was thrown out of it. Shortly after the hard right deviation, another intense vortex developed and more extensive tree damage occurred just east of Sophia Sutton Road. As the tornado crossed Highway 42, it reached peak intensity with winds around 130 mph. Here a large cinder block store was demolished and a well built brick home had the roof removed. Multiple power poles were broken along with numerous trees snapped/uprooted. The tornado continued east-northeast generally along portions of Double Ponds Road. Here more trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado crossed Highway 13 and then dissipated at Sugar Ridge Road but not before snapping a few tree limbs. Maximum winds were 105 mph in Lawrence County and 130 mph winds in the entire path. Total path length was 10.92 miles.

This tornado started just north-northwest of the town of Silver Creek off of Stephens Cemetery Road and then crossed Highway 43. A barn and shed were initially damaged along with some downed trees. Damage to trees increased along Highway 43 with several snapped. The tornado then moved into the Silver Creek bottom then crossed Daughdrill Road. where more trees were snapped/uprooted along with downed power lines. One home had minor roof damage with a group of 3 chicken houses damaged, and one house destroyed. The tornado then crossed into Jefferson Davis County and intensified. As it crossed Spring Hill Church Road, trees and power lines were down. One home on blocks was destroyed. An area of woods adjacent to the home sustained significant tree damage where all the trees were snapped in a focused corridor from what appears to be an intense vortex. An EF2 rating was given here. The tornado then crossed Zion Hill Church Road, although the tornado weakened a bit at this point, it still snapped and uprooted numerous trees. The tornado then moved along Gholar Road. In this location, the tornado transitioned and took a hard right. While doing so, another intense vortex occurred within otherwise standard EF0, EF1 tree damage. The noted vortex destroyed a mobile home and threw a Nissan truck about 30 yds; one injury occurred here as the person was in the mobile home and was thrown out of it. Shortly after the hard right deviation, another intense vortex developed and more extensive tree damage occurred just east of Sophia Sutton Road. As the tornado crossed Highway 42, it reached peak intensity with winds around 130 mph. Here a large cinder block store was demolished and a well built brick home had the roof removed. Multiple power poles were broken along with numerous trees snapped/uprooted. The tornado continued east-northeast generally along portions of Double Ponds Road. Here more trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado crossed Highway 13 and then dissipated at Sugar Ridge Road but not before snapping a few tree limbs. Maximum winds were 130 mph. Total path length was 10.92 miles.

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

30 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:14 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:49 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:48 UTC and running to 01:00 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:25 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.

Columbia (0R0), 41 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), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:42 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

37 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.