EF2 tornado, Blair to Chapelville, 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

3:53 PM CST (21:53 UTC)

Lifted

4:04 PM CST (22:04 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

9.4 miles (15.2 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$750,000

County

Lee County

Touchdown point

34.444, -88.719

Lift-off point

34.492, -88.564

Record number

1912161553-01

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MEG, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

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

A stalled front was located across the Mid-South. A moist and unstable airmass was in place south of the stalled front across northeast Mississippi. A cold front moved across the Lower Mississippi Valley during the afternoon hours of December 16th and interacted with the moist and unstable airmass to produce severe storms across Northeast Mississippi including several tornadoes.

The first damage was observed to trees along Euclatubba Road, south of Highway 348. The tornado crossed Highway 348, damaging additional trees. The first structural damage occurred to homes along County Road 833. The tornado then moved into a residential area. Numerous homes suffered roof and window damage, and a few had garage doors blown out. Two homes suffered nearly complete roof removal. The tornado destroyed a church of metal construction along Mitchell St. then crossed Highway 45 and caused additional tree damage. The tornado then crossed Pratts Road about 3 miles east of Highway 45. The tornado damaged a silo, a home and a storage shed along Highway 370, and caused additional tree damage before dissipating in northeastern Lee County. A total of 37 homes suffered damage. Peak winds were estimated at 115 mph.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:50 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:22 UTC and running to 23:43 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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.

Tupelo (TUP), 26 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), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:56 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.