EF1 tornado, Cynthia to Longaloo, Mississippi, May 9, 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

May 9, 2019

Touchdown

8:41 AM CDT (13:41 UTC)

Lifted

8:50 AM CDT (13:50 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.7 km)

Path width

550 yards (503 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Hinds County

Touchdown point

32.392, -90.253

Lift-off point

32.378, -90.194

Record number

1905090741-01

14 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 90 mph.

• several large trees uprooted in the area and blocking the road
• tree down. nearby tin shed had minor roof/tin siding damage

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

A slow moving low pressure system moved northeast from the High Plains region toward the Great Lakes between May 8th and 9th. Two shortwave troughs moving east ahead of this low pressure system initiated squall lines that spread eastward across much of the Gulf Coast region. Thunderstorms embedded in these squall lines produced damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes. Additionally, repeated rounds of heavy rain led to scattered flash flooding.

This tornado touched down along the Natchez Trace Parkway near Mile Marker 94 and continued east-southeast. Along Hilda Drive, the tornado was likely at its strongest and widest. Many large limbs were broken and a few trees were uprooted in this area with some completely blocking Hilda Drive. A few trees were also blown down near the railroad track. The tornado continued across NW Industrial Parkway, NW Progress Parkway, and Beasley Road uprooting a few trees and downing several large tree limbs. It then crossed Interstate 220 and Livingston Road where a large tree was uprooted in the yard of a residence. The tornado dissipated in the neighborhood north of Lake Hico before reaching Watkins Drive. Maximum estimated winds were 90 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 13:09 UTC and running to 17:09 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 13:34 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.

Jackson/Hawkins Field (HKS), 6 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), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:41 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

6 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.