EF1 tornado, Vaughn to West Lincoln, 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

11:37 PM CDT (04:37 UTC)

Lifted

11:46 PM CDT (04:46 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

4.4 miles (7.0 km)

Path width

530 yards (485 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$80,000

County

Lincoln County

Touchdown point

31.570, -90.549

Lift-off point

31.514, -90.517

Record number

2104092237-01

24 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.

• Oak pushed over west to east. Shingles damaged from falling branches on patio.
• Few trees pushed over west to east.
• Small tree pushed over south to north.
• Few pines and oaks pushed over. North to south

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.

An EF1 tornado developed in the evening of April 9th near Zetus Road and Russell Lane. The tornado produced primarily tree damage before traveling southeast across Palmetto Trail and then crossing near Watts Lane and Norman Trail. The tornado became most intense in this area where a shed was damaged by falling trees on Norman Trail while on Watts Lane a large stand of young pines fell, as well as some power poles and lines. The tornado continued southeast where more tree damage was documented as well as roofing damage to some structures. It was in this area that the path was most clearly defined with stands of trees significantly damaged in a clear trajectory to the southeast. The tornado crossed Hwy 84 near Breckenridge Lane where out buildings were heavily damaged or destroyed. The tornado then began to weaken but continued to produce intermittent tree damage south of the highway before dissipating north of Auburn Drive. Estimated peak winds were 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 03:35 UTC and running to 05:19 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.

Brookhaven (1R7), 14 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), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:34 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.