Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2021

EF0 tornado, Pass Christian, Mississippi, June 18, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Harrison County on June 18, 2021, touching down at 12:37 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 of property damage.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 18, 2021
Touchdown
12:37 AM CDT (05:37 UTC)
Lifted
12:38 AM CDT (05:38 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Harrison County
Touchdown point
30.324, -89.229
Lift-off point
30.331, -89.234
Record number
2106182337-01

The damage survey

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 82 mph.

  • roof shingles, chimney and siding torn off. Siding scattered on front side of house and stuck in tree next to neighbors house to the east. Fence blown over facing north and east.
  • roof torn on south facing side. fence down. tree branches down everywhere.
  • Pergola destroyed in pool, siding ripped off, South-facing double doors blown in, large cedar swing set/tree house blown over, branch impounded on east facing side of shed. Large oak tree uprooted (fell to the north) and hit the house. A large camper in back yard was overturned on other side of fence - rolled to the north and fell into neighbors house on north side (it may have gotten lofted as it didn't completely destroy the fence). The worst damage occurred at this residence.
  • most concentrated damage. damage faces to the north and east. Subtle convergent pattern. Car windows blown in. Garage door bashed in from trampoline. Shingles peeled and chimney blown over. Numerous fences blown over from about five different houses. Several fences were just built.

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

A tropical wave meandered in the Bay of Campeche for a few days in mid June before slowly tracking northeastward towards the Louisiana coastline. It actually didn't attain tropical storm status until after it made landfall in Terrebonne Parish on the early morning of June 19th. The generally weaker nature of the storm meant that wind and surge were the lesser of impacts. However, a band of very heavy rainfall developed on the east side of the storm and brought several inches to upwards of one foot of rain to the Mississippi coastal Counties. Peak wind gusts across the region barely reached tropical storm strength.

Several buildings in Camille Village Apartments sustained minor damage to the siding and front awnings. Two buildings had their AC units blown over. One of the AC units was not found. An awning attached to the front of one of these building was completely destroyed. The roofing and awning material was lofted and found about 1,000 yards to the northwest past a fence and area of trees.

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

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:37 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:00 UTC17:42 UTCCoastal Flood WarningLIX
18:00 UTC17:37 UTCFlash Flood WatchLIX
02:52 UTC03:22 UTCFlood AdvisoryLIX
03:22 UTC08:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningLIX
04:23 UTC04:45 UTCTornado WarningLIX
04:39 UTC04:48 UTCTornado WarningLIX
04:40 UTC05:44 UTCFlood AdvisoryLIX
05:37 UTC06:00 UTCTornado WarningLIX
05:44 UTC09:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningLIX
05:53 UTC06:01 UTCTornado WarningLIX
06:40 UTC11:58 UTCTornado WatchLIX
11:12 UTC07:48 UTCFlood WarningLIX
11:15 UTC14:42 UTCFlood WarningLIX
13:22 UTC00:29 UTCFlood WarningLIX
17:39 UTC21:00 UTCWind AdvisoryLIX

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:48 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), 00:00Z

5.6 hours before the tornado, 46 km from the path. June 19, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2021-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 174 joules per kilogram, CIN -29, lifted condensation level 572 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2021-06-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 108 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
174 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-29 J/kg
Surface CAPE
188 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
572 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
108 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 12:00Z

6.4 hours after it, 46 km from the path. June 19, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2021-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 925 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 506 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2021-06-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 143 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
925 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1618 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
506 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
143 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
147 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
3.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 103 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:35 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
03:49 UTCFLOOD2 Wnw BiloxiHarrison, MSMINOR FLOODING NEAR BILOXI.
05:37 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ne Pass ChristianHarrison, MSROOF DAMAGE TO HOUSE ON DEBBIE STREET. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
05:37 UTCTORNADO1 Ne Pass ChristianHarrison, MSCORRECTS PREVIOUS TSTM WND DMG REPORT FROM 1 NE PASS CHRISTIAN. ROOF DAMAGE TO HOUSE ON DEBBIE STREET. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
06:32 UTCFLOOD6 Wnw BiloxiHarrison, MSROAD FLOODING OCCURRING NEAR BILOXI.
07:14 UTCFLASH FLOODKilnHancock, MSNUMEROUS ROADS CLOSED AND IMPASSABLE DUE TO HIGH WATER. A FEW HIGH WATER RESCUES NECESSARY WHERE PEOPLE DROVE AROUND BARRICADES.
07:31 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ssw Long BeachHarrison, MSNUMEROUS TREES UPROOTED AND SNAPPED BETWEEN WHITE HARBOR RD AND PERIWINKLE LN. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
07:31 UTCTORNADO1 Ssw Long BeachHarrison, MSCORRECTS PREVIOUS TSTM WND DMG REPORT FROM 1 SSW LONG BEACH. NUMEROUS TREES UPROOTED AND SNAPPED BETWEEN WHITE HARBOR RD AND PERIWINKLE LN. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
08:00 UTCSTORM SURGE3 Nnw WavelandHancock, MSSTORM SURGE FLOODING AT SHORELINE PARK IN BAY ST LOUIS. WYCM6 PEAKED AT 4.43 MHHW.
08:15 UTCFLASH FLOOD4 Wsw WigginsStone, MSBROADCAST MEDIA RECEIVED PHOTOS ON SOCIAL MEDIA THAT SHOW FLASH FLOODING OVER OLD HWY 26 OFF OF RED CREEK. WATER IS COMING UP TO HOMES (AS HIGH AS CAR HEADLIGHTS). TIME ESTIMATED WITH HEAVIEST RAIN ON RADAR.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 18, 2021

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1811:50 AM CDTEF1Knox, IL10.3250$150,000
June 183:50 PM EDTEF2Jay, IN5.4500
June 184:12 PM EDTEF2Mercer, OH5.6200$1.0 million
June 188:38 PM EDTEF1Montgomery, OH2.8100$60,000
June 188:51 PM EDTEF1Ripley, IN6.2150$100,000
June 189:01 PM EDTEF1Dearborn, IN0.5150$50,000
June 189:09 PM EDTEF1Boone, KY2.8175$50,000

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.