EF0 tornado, Stringer to Waldrup, Mississippi, December 24, 2020

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

December 24, 2020

Touchdown

1:17 AM CST (07:17 UTC)

Lifted

1:20 AM CST (07:20 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.3 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Jasper County

Touchdown point

31.867, -89.291

Lift-off point

31.886, -89.252

Record number

2012240117-01

27 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 95 mph.

• Fence down, some shingles blown off.
• Tornado begin point. Small tree snapped
• Light pole knocked over, sheet metal wrapped onto pole.
• Smaller pine trees snapped 2/3 up.

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

A line of storms moved through Mississippi on the evening of December 23rd and into the early morning hours on December 24th. These storms produced damaging winds and tornadoes across southern Mississippi.

This EF0 tornado tracked just north of Stringer, crossing CR 102, MS Highway 15, and CR 173 before ending just east of CR 17. Along the path, a few trees were snapped, large tree limbs were blown down, and shingles were blown off of two homes. Maximum estimated winds were 80 miles per hour.

The tornado began just behind a home near the intersection of Highway 2333 and Highway 28. The roof was ripped off of a garage, a glass door was forced off the hinges and the front brick exterior wall was heavily damaged. The rear wall was leaning inward. On Highway 28, an old gas station roof was damaged when shingles were blown off. There was some evidence of the roof lifting. Several large trees were uprooted or snapped. Along Highway 528, for about a mile, there were several more large limbs snapped. Near the town of Waldrup, around Highways 29 and 528, several sheds had tin peeled back from the roof and there were a few limbs snapped. There were uprooted or snapped trees in a nearby wooded area. The debris had been cleared, but a large pile of tin and wood supported earlier reports of significant damage to a chicken house. A few more trees were downed on CR 528-14 before the tornado dissipated in a wooded area. The highest estimated winds were 95 mph.

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

24 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:53 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:45 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 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), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:15 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 2020 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.