Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2020
EF0 tornado, Big Pt, Mississippi, June 24, 2020
This EF0 tornado ran 2.7 miles across Jackson County on June 24, 2020, touching down at 1:14 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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, 2020
- Touchdown
- 1:14 PM CDT (18:14 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:18 PM CDT (18:18 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 2.7 miles (4.4 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Jackson County
- Touchdown point
- 30.573, -88.508
- Lift-off point
- 30.599, -88.474
- Record number
- 2006241214-01
The damage survey
11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX and NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.
- Metal roof torn from barn along with damage to the roof of a home. Several trees snapped and uprooted. Estimated path width approximately 50 yards.
- Significant damage to shed with metal roof. Also wall and roof damage to nearby mobile home. Trees also snapped behind shed. Path width had narrowed to approximately 25 yards.
- Large branch from oak tree snapped and destroyed a shed. Another nearby oak tree uprooted.
- Emergency Management assessed a narrow path tornado caused several tree limbs to be snapped and a pool liner lifted and carried about 40 yards. No structural damage noted.
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
Two mesoscale cycloncic vortex systems (MCVs) produced several severe thunderstorms across the area from early morning through the mid afternoon hours of Wednesday June 24, 2020. There were several tornadoes reported with these severe thunderstorms as they moved across the area. The most significant tornadoes impacted the Baton Rouge area, the Salem area of Walthall County, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Jackson County Emergency Management has surveyed the storm damage near Escatawpa, MS. It has been determined the damage was the result of a tornado. The tornado has been rated an EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Damage estimates were consistent with winds of 60 mph.||Emergency Manager surveyed minor damage on Goff Farms Road where several small limbs were snapped and a pool liner was lifted and carried about 40 yards. No structural damage was observed.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
21 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:53 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:30 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:53 UTC | 18:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | LIX |
| 18:00 UTC | 18:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | LIX |
| 18:03 UTC | 23:23 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | LIX |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:32 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.
Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 12:00Z
6.2 hours before the tornado, 122 km from the path. June 24, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1752 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -10 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 931 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 599 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 243 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 286 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.3
- Supercell composite
- 8.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.0 K/km
Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 00:00Z
5.8 hours after it, 122 km from the path. June 25, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 832 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -49 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1740 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 764 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 35 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 0 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.6 K/km
The radar
The Mobile radar (KMOB), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:14 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 Nw Lucedale | George, MS | ROTATING WALL CLOUD REPORTED BY WEATHER SPOTTER. |
| 16:14 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 Nw Lucedale | George, MS | |
| 16:14 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ne Merrill | George, MS | SEVERAL TREES DOWN. TREE FELL AND DAMAGED A CARPORT AND HOUSE. PICTURES AND VIDEO VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 17:27 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Sw Gulfport | Harrison, MS | REPORTS OF TREE LIMBS DOWN AND TRAFFIC LIGHT NOT WORKING AT HWY 90 AND 15TH STREET. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 17:27 UTC | TORNADO 0 | N Gulfport | Harrison, MS | PUBLIC REPORTED BRIEF TORNADO ALONG HWY 90 EAST NEAR COWAN ROAD IN GULFPORT, MS. PRELIMINARY SURVEY INDICATED LARGE TREE BRANCHES CRASHED ONTO A CONDO COMPLEX, CAUSING SOME STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. ESTIMATED WINDS 65 MPH. SEVE |
| 17:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Gulfport | Harrison, MS | REPORT OF A LIGHT POLE DOWN ON HWY 90 IN GULFPORT. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 17:34 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 5 Ne Biloxi | Jackson, MS | NWS STORM SURVEY FOUND A SHORT TRACK OF DAMAGE WAS NOTED IN THE AREA OF BIG JOHN ROAD AND KROHN LANE. MOST NOTABLE WAS A LARGE HARDWOOD TREE UPROOTED ALONG WITH SEVERAL PINE TREES TWISTED AND SNAPPED. PRELIMINARY RATING |
| 17:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 N Biloxi | Harrison, MS | EMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED POWER OUTAGES AND TREE DAAMAGE NEAR 26245 HWY 15 NORTH OF DIBERVILLE. TREES AND POWER LINES WERE ALSO DAMAGED NEAR BIG JOHN ROAD AND 6160 KROHN RD HAD A TREE ON THE ROOF OF A HOUSE REPORTED. PO |
| 17:35 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 1 N Gulfport | Harrison, MS | PUBLIC REPORTED BRIEF TORNADO ALONG HWY 90 EAST NEAR COWAN ROAD IN GULFPORT, MS. PRELIMINARY SURVEY INDICATED LARGE TREE BRANCHES CRASHED ONTO A CONDO COMPLEX, CAUSING SOME STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. ESTIMATED WINDS 60 MPH. SURV |
| 17:35 UTC | TORNADO | 1 N Gulfport | Harrison, MS | PUBLIC REPORTED BRIEF TORNADO ALONG HWY 90 EAST NEAR COWAN ROAD IN GULFPORT, MS. |
| 17:40 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 8 Nnw Biloxi | Harrison, MS | NWS STORM SURVEY FOUND EF-1 TORNADO DAMAGE ON OLD HWY 15 NORTH OF BILOXI, MS. SMALL POPULATED COMMUNITY ALONG OLD HWY 15 HAD A COUPLE OF HOMES WITH ROOF DAMAGE. MANY TREES WERE VIOLENTLY TWISTED. A POWER POLEWAS SNAPPED |
| 17:44 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Biloxi | Harrison, MS | BROADCAST MEDIA REPORTED SEVERAL POWER LINES DOWN IN THE WOOLMARKET AREA OF BILOXI NEAR DEROUEN RD AND HORACE RUSHING. SEVERAL TREES WERE ALSO REPORTED DOWN WITH EVIDENCE OF TWISTING. |
| 17:58 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ne Gautier | Jackson, MS | FIRE DEPT REPORTED DEBRIS ALONG MILE MARKER 56 AND 57 ON I-10 IN JACKSON COUNTY, MS. POSSIBLE TORNADO AS FIRE DEPT. ALSO REPORTED POSSIBLE TOUCHDOWN. |
| 17:58 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 9 Nne Escatawpa | Jackson, MS | FIRE DEPT REPORTED DEBRIS ALONG MILE MARKER 56 AND 57 ON I-10 IN JACKSON COUNTY, MS. EMERGENCY MANAGER SURVEYED MINOR DAMAGE ON GOFF FARMS ROAD WHERE SEVERAL SMALL LIMBS WERE SNAPPED AND A POOL LINER WAS LIFTED AND CARRI |
| 17:58 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 9 Nne Escatawpa | Jackson, MS | FIRE DEPT REPORTED DEBRIS ALONG MILE MARKER 56 AND 57 ON I-10 IN JACKSON COUNTY, MS. EMERGENCY MANAGER SURVEYED MINOR DAMAGE ON GOFF FARMS ROAD WHERE SEVERAL SMALL LIMBS WERE SNAPPED AND A POOL LINER WAS LIFTED AND CARRI |
| 18:00 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ese Ramsey Springs | George, MS | A TORNADO TOUCHDOWN OCCURRED JUST NORTH OF THE GEORGE AND JACKSON COUNTY LINE AND CONTINUED JUST OVER 1 MILE TOWARDS THE NORTHEAST. NUMEROUS PINE TREES WERE SNAPPED NEAR THE TRUNK. THE APPROXIMATE MAXIMUM PATH WIDTH WAS |
| 18:19 UTC | TORNADO | 3 W Agricola | George, MS | A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST EAST OF CCC ROAD AND TRAVELED JUST LESS THAN ONE MILE TO THE NORTHEAST ENDING AT THE INTERSECTION OF HILLTOP DRIVE AND MARSHALL SMITH ROAD. A FEW TREE TOPS WERE DAMAGED IN A PASTURE WITH A STR |
| 18:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Sse Agricola | George, MS | TREES AND POWER POLES SNAPPED. POWER LINES DOWN. METAL WRAPPED AROUND A POWER POLE. PICTURES AND REPORTS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 18:22 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Sse Agricola | George, MS | A TORNADO BEGAN JUST SOUTH OF PARKER ROAD AND TRAVELED NORTHEAST APPROXIMATELY 2 MILES, CROSSING NENA ROAD AND HWY. 613, BEFORE ENDING IN A PASTURE JUST SOUTH OF CORLEY ROAD. SEVERAL TREES WERE SNAPPED AND UPROOTED ALONG |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 24, 2020
14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 24 | 5:12 AM CDT | EF1 | East Baton Rouge Parish, LA | 3.2 | 125 | |||
| June 24 | 5:35 AM CDT | EF1 | East Baton Rouge Parish, LA | 3.4 | 60 | |||
| June 24 | 5:50 AM CDT | EF1 | East Baton Rouge Parish, LA | 3.5 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| June 24 | 7:20 AM CDT | EF1 | Walthall, MS | 6.1 | 150 | $5,000 | ||
| June 24 | 7:35 AM CDT | EF0 | Marion, MS | 0.4 | 50 | $12,000 | ||
| June 24 | 12:26 PM CDT | EF0 | Harrison, MS | 3.0 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| June 24 | 12:41 PM CDT | EF1 | Harrison, MS | 2.7 | 75 | $20,000 | ||
| June 24 | 12:57 PM CDT | EF0 | Jackson, MS | 0.8 | 25 | |||
| June 24 | 1:00 PM CDT | EF1 | George, MS | 1.3 | 50 | |||
| June 24 | 1:19 PM CDT | EF0 | George, MS | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| June 24 | 1:22 PM CDT | EF1 | George, MS | 0.9 | 50 | |||
| June 24 | 1:39 PM CDT | EF0 | Mobile, AL | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| June 24 | 1:49 PM CDT | EF1 | Mobile, AL | 2.7 | 300 | |||
| June 24 | 2:30 PM CDT | EF0 | West Baton Rouge Parish, LA | 0.7 | 75 | $15,000 |
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.