EF1 tornado, Kosciusko, Mississippi, April 9, 2021

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

April 9, 2021

Touchdown

8:04 PM CDT (01:04 UTC)

Lifted

8:05 PM CDT (01:05 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Attala County

Touchdown point

33.066, -89.590

Lift-off point

33.058, -89.577

Record number

2104091904-01

25 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 107 mph.

• Half the top of a large tree was split.
• A few patches of roofing had been tarped over.
• Several snapped and uprooted large trees and limbs. Trees blown down in opposing directions here.
• Several large trees uprooted and blown back to west.

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

Showers and thunderstorms developed in association with a frontal system moving through the region. Some of these storms produced a few tornadoes, hail, and damaging wind gusts.

A brief EF1 tornado occurred during the evening of April 9th in Kosciusko. The tornado began at the intersection of MS Highway 12 and North Jackson St where an awning and portion of a sign was blown off the CVS Pharmacy. The tornado quickly reached peak intensity as it moved southeast where several trees were uprooted along Knox Rd, including one that fell onto an apartment building. The tornado continued southeast crossing Lucas St and Fairground St where the most concentrated path of damage occurred. Here, multiple trees were uprooted along with several pine trees that were snapped. Several homes also sustained roof damage due to falling trees and branches, and one home on Lucas St had a portion of its roof and interior ceiling blown in after a gable failed. The tornado began to weaken as it crossed East Adams St and East Jefferson St where mainly large tree branches were snapped. Two trees were also uprooted in this area. The tornado quickly dissipated after crossing East Jefferson St and was on the ground for approximately one minute. Estimated peak wind was 95 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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:43 UTC and running to 03:35 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:19 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.

Winona (5A6), 47 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), 95 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:04 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 2021 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.