EF1 tornado, Cameron to Ethel, Mississippi, December 29, 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

December 29, 2019

Touchdown

3:35 PM CST (21:35 UTC)

Lifted

3:42 PM CST (21:42 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

7.3 miles (11.8 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$29,000

Counties

Leake, Attala and Madison counties

Touchdown point

32.880, -89.808

Lift-off point

32.938, -89.703

Record number

1912291535-01

13 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 105 mph.

• trampoline and outbuilding
• outbuilding, pumphouse destroyed
• edge. mix of snapped and uprooted

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

A strong storm system brought a broken line of showers and thunderstorms to the ArkLaMiss region during the afternoon of December 29th. Damaging winds occurred with these storms along with a few tornadoes.

A brief EF1 tornado developed during the afternoon of December 29 along Cain Road west of Thomastown, in extreme northeast Madison County and continued into southern Attala County. The tornado uprooted and snapped trees along a path that crossed County Road 4015, 4020, and State Highway 429 before lifting. The strongest damage was along 4020 where the storm took down power lines, uprooted hardwood and softwood trees, destroyed a small outbuilding, as well as a pumphouse. Maximum winds were 105 mph. Total path length was 7.34 miles. Max width was 400 yards in Attala County.

A brief EF1 tornado developed during the afternoon of December 29 along Cain Road west of Thomastown, in extreme northeast Madison County and continued into southern Attala County. The tornado uprooted and snapped trees along a path that crossed County Road 4015, 4020, and State Highway 429 before lifting. The strongest damage was along 4020 where the storm took down power lines, uprooted hardwood and softwood trees, destroyed a small outbuilding, as well as a pumphouse. Maximum winds were 105 mph. Total path length was 7.34 miles. Max width was 400 yards in Attala County.

A brief EF1 tornado developed during the afternoon of December 29 along Cain Road west of Thomastown, in extreme northeast Madison County and continued into southern Attala County. The tornado uprooted and snapped trees along a path that crossed County Road 4015, 4020, and State Highway 429 before lifting. The strongest damage was along 4020 where the storm took down power lines, uprooted hardwood and softwood trees, destroyed a small outbuilding, as well as a pumphouse. Maximum winds were 105 mph. Total path length was 7.34 miles. Max width was 400 yards in Attala County.

A brief EF1 tornado developed during the afternoon of December 29 along Cain Road west of Thomastown, in extreme northeast Madison County and continued into southern Attala County. The tornado uprooted and snapped trees along a path that crossed County Road 4015, 4020, and State Highway 429 before lifting. The strongest damage was along 4020 where the storm took down power lines, uprooted hardwood and softwood trees, destroyed a small outbuilding, as well as a pumphouse. Maximum winds were 105 mph. Total path length was 7.34 miles. Max width was 400 yards in Attala County.

An EF1 tornado started just north of the Attala County Airport, damaging a barn roof and uprooting trees before moving northeast, crossing the Natchez Trace Parkway. Along the Trace, the storm uprooted and snapped off a couple dozen trees. The tornado path continued northeast between State Highway 12 and the Trace, crossing 12 just north of the town of Ethel. The tornado lifted over the Yockanookany River northeast of Ethel. Hundreds of trees were damaged or destroyed along the path of the storm. Maximum winds were 105 mph. Total path length was 6.60 miles.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:35 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:41 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:57 UTC and running to 22:28 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 19:37 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.

Madison (MBO), 62 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), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:38 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

7 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.