Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2019
EF0 tornado, Center Ridge, Mississippi, June 24, 2019
This EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Smith County on June 24, 2019, touching down at 5:57 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $15,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- June 24, 2019
- Touchdown
- 5:57 AM CDT (10:57 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:59 AM CDT (10:59 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.8 miles (1.3 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $15,000
- County
- Smith County
- Touchdown point
- 31.962, -89.490
- Lift-off point
- 31.966, -89.477
- Record number
- 1906240457-01
The damage survey
4 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 93 mph.
- several hardwood trees with trunks snapped and large limbs down.
- several hardwood and pine trees snapped in a field. a couple trees uprooted.
- small tree trunk snapped, large limb snapped and siding ripped off a chicken house
- several hardwood and pine trees snapped in a field
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
An organized line of showers and thunderstorms developed as a disturbance approached from the northwest and moved through the area. Some of these storms produced flash flooding, damaging winds, and 3 tornadoes.
An EF-0 tornado spun up in a field just west of Highway 37 and traveled northeast about three quarters of mile before dissipating along Beaver Dam Road(SC 84). There were some small wooded areas where a couple clusters of trees were snapped or uprooted. There was other straight-line wind damage stretching southwest to Highway 35. The storm was about 50 yards at the widest and the strongest wind speeds were around 74 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:03 UTC | 11:34 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:49 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 air that afternoon
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.
Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z
11.0 hours before the tornado, 69 km from the path. June 24, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 895 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -67 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1730 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1530 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 25 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 10 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 52 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 113 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z
1.0 hours after it, 69 km from the path. June 24, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -67714 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1195 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 35 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -417 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -290 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.0 K/km
The surface observations
Laurel (LUL), 44 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:15 UTC | 80.4 | 76.3 | 180° 9 kt | 1011.9 | ||
| 09:35 UTC | 80.4 | 76.3 | 180° 10 kt | 1012.2 | ||
| 09:55 UTC | 80.6 | 76 | 190° 8 kt | 1012.5 | ||
| 10:15 UTC | 80.8 | 76 | 190° 8 kt | 1012.5 | ||
| 10:35 UTC | 80.8 | 76 | 190° 8 kt | 15 | 1012.5 | |
| 10:55 UTC | 81 | 75.7 | 200° 10 kt | 1012.9 | ||
| 11:15 UTC | 81 | 75.6 | 210° 7 kt | 1012.9 | ||
| 11:35 UTC | 81 | 75.7 | 190° 8 kt | 1013.2 | ||
| 11:55 UTC | 77.7 | 73.6 | 220° 8 kt | 1013.5 | -RA | |
| 12:15 UTC | 75.7 | 73 | 230° 11 kt | 17 | 1013.9 | |
| 12:35 UTC | 75.2 | 72.3 | 270° 10 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 12:55 UTC | 73.8 | 70.7 | 280° 11 kt | 1014.6 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:54 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Nne Prentiss | Jefferson Davis, MS | TREE DOWN ON HWY 13 N. |
| 10:57 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Nnw Center Ridge | Smith, MS | A EF-0 TORNADO SPUN UP IN A FIELD JUST WEST OF HIGHWAY 37 AND TRAVELED NORTHEAST ABOUT THREE QUARTERS OF MILE BEFORE DISSIPATING ALONG BEAVER DAM ROAD (SC 84). THERE WERE SOME WOODED AREAS WHERE A COUPLE CLUSTERS OF TREE |
| 11:03 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nne Center Ridge | Smith, MS | TREE DOWN ACROSS SCR 93. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 24, 2019
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 24 | 1:45 AM CDT | EF0 | Morehouse Parish, LA | 1.2 | 75 | $10,000 | ||
| June 24 | 3:45 AM CDT | EF1 | Warren, MS | 3.3 | 400 | $70,000 | ||
| June 24 | 3:56 AM CDT | EF1 | Hinds, MS | 5.3 | 250 | $100,000 | ||
| June 24 | 4:50 PM EDT | EF1 | Muskingum, OH | 0.1 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| June 24 | 4:13 PM CDT | EF0 | Mason, KY to OH | 5.7 | 75 | $60,000 | ||
| June 24 | 5:55 PM EDT | EF1 | Adams, OH | 9.2 | 300 | $55,000 | ||
| June 24 | 6:28 PM EDT | EF1 | Pike, OH | 4.3 | 200 | $75,000 | ||
| June 24 | 6:51 PM EDT | EF1 | Kanawha, WV | 7.8 | 350 | $500,000 | ||
| June 24 | 6:02 PM CDT | Unrated | Concho, TX | 0.1 | 250 | |||
| June 24 | 7:02 PM EDT | EF0 | Kanawha, WV | 0.8 | 75 | $70,000 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.