EF3 tornado, Mize to Center Ridge, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

December 16, 2019

Touchdown

5:19 PM CST (23:19 UTC)

Lifted

5:51 PM CST (23:51 UTC)

On the ground

32 minutes

Path length

18.6 miles (30.0 km)

Path width

1,320 yards (1207 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$705,000

Counties

Simpson and Smith counties

Touchdown point

31.793, -89.678

Lift-off point

31.976, -89.445

Record number

1912161719-01

166 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 150 mph.

• 6 chicken house dmg, 1 destroyed
• 4 chicken houses destroyed

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 EF3 tornado started in far southeast Simpson County (Saratoga community) where a few trees were downed. It then moved into southwest Smith County where the damage increased. The Calvary Church was damaged along with a few other buildings, sheds and one small wooden home had the roof off. Many trees were uprooted and snapped along with power lines down. The tornado continued northeast across County roads 53 and 57. Intensity increased as tree and power line damage increased. Several homes in the area sustained some damage and 3 different groups of chicken houses were heavily damaged or destroyed. The tornado continued to intensify as it approached Highway 28 near Mize. Numerous and extensive tree damage was noted, especially in a focused corridor, indicative of a multi-vortex tornado. The most intense damage occurred just off County Road 58 where a well built brick home lost its roof and 75% of its exterior walls. An F250 truck and Toyota truck were thrown 200 yards into a pasture along with a few ATVs thrown a considerable distance. Multiple structures and chicken houses were heavily damaged near Highway 28 on the west, northwest, and north side of Mize. Extensive tree damage occurred as well along with power lines down. Along County Road 100, a well built brick home lost the entire roof and one outer wall. A large shed was destroyed and a tractor and boat were thrown 50 yards. Numerous power lines/poles were down as well. The tornado continued northeast and crossed Highway 35 and the intensity lessened a bit. Beyond Highway 35, most of the damage was to trees and power lines along with some minor damage to a few homes. The tornado dissipated just after it crossed County Road 93. Maximum winds were 150 mph. Total path length was 18.63 miles. Max path width was 1320 yards in Smith County.

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

42 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:37 UTC, 42 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 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.

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:16 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.