EF1 tornado, Martinville, Mississippi, February 5, 2020

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

February 5, 2020

Touchdown

2:57 PM CST (20:57 UTC)

Lifted

3:07 PM CST (21:07 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

6.2 miles (9.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Simpson County

Touchdown point

31.955, -89.752

Lift-off point

32.005, -89.665

Record number

2002051457-01

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 EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Numerous trees snapped and uprooted, per drone imagery.
• Several dead trees snapped, via drone imagery
• Numerous mainly dead trees snapped and uprooted, via drone footage
• Multiple snapped and uprooted trees, via drone footage

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

A strong cold front moved through the region. Ahead of this, storms developed across Central Mississippi and produced tornadoes and wind damage.

This tornado touched down in a pasture just west of Highway 541 where a few trees were uprooted. Very minor tree damage was noted initially as it crossed roads and just past Highway 540. Damage increased as it crossed Cole Road where a few more trees were uprooted. As the tornado approached and crossed Bill Collins Road, it increased and reached peak intensity of EF1 with 100 mph. Here, multiple hardwood trees were uprooted. Two homes sustained moderate roof damage along with one shed having nearly all of the tin torn off the roof. In this area, a home had a large window blown out and a car port destroyed. In the carport a car was rolled along with an RV and each vehicle was destroyed. Additional trees were uprooted and snapped just to the north of Highway 540. Along Vera Drive. a mobile home was pushed off the blocks, had the front porch blown away, and had multiple trees damaged. The tornado lifted just east of there before the Smith County line. Max sustained winds were 100 mph.

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

50 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:07 UTC, 50 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:50 UTC and running to 23:50 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 20:00 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/Thompson (JAN), 51 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), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:56 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

15 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.