EF1 tornado, Oakland to Mc Comb, 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

11:21 AM CDT (16:21 UTC)

Lifted

11:24 AM CDT (16:24 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.4 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pike County

Touchdown point

31.250, -90.509

Lift-off point

31.267, -90.456

Record number

1905091021-01

76 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

• one uprooted southeast, one either east or slightly northeast
• undetermined direction either south or east
• Tree displaced on high resolution satellite imagery.
• Several trees displaced on high res satellite imagery

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

A constant stream of tropical moisture was acted on by a very slowly moving cold front. Several rounds of thunderstorms developed, producing severe weather and a few reports of flash flooding.

A NWS storm survey found damage consistent with an EF-1 tornado in McComb. The tornado touched down around Delaware Avenue and tracked east along Seminole Drive, uprooting and snapping trees. The tornado traveled along Seminole Drive to the southeast and impacted Arrowhead Drive, uprooting and snapping several trees. Several of these trees were found untouched in a crossed direction that indicated rotation. The tornado moved eastward and impacted Shawnee Drive and the east-west portion of Cheyenne Drive, uprooting and snapping many trees in these neighborhoods. The tornado lifted as it approached Interstate 55. Estimated peak wind was 100 mph.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:06 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:45 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.

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.