Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2021

EF1 tornado, Arena, Mississippi, June 19, 2021

Name: EF1 tornado, Arena, Mississippi, June 19, 2021
Start: 2021-06-19T10:35:00.000Z
End: 2021-06-19T10:37:00.000Z
Location: Arena, Mississippi

This EF1 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Jackson County on June 19, 2021, touching down at 5:35 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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: EF1
Date: June 19, 2021
Touchdown: 5:35 AM CDT (10:35 UTC)
Lifted: 5:37 AM CDT (10:37 UTC)
On the ground: 2 minutes
Path length: 0.8 miles (1.4 km)
Path width: 50 yards (46 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $5,000
County: Jackson County
Touchdown point: 30.623, -88.413
Lift-off point: 30.635, -88.410
Record number: 2106190435-01

The damage survey

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

Large softwood tree branches in association with snapped softwoods - reason for high-end rating.
Isolated hardwood tree uprooted - reason for lower wind speed estimation.
Several leaning/broken poles, of which were indicated to be broken or leaning due to trees on the lines.

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.

The short-lived tornado touched down just east of State Line Road south of State Highway 614. The tornado then crossed State Line Road snapping several softwood pine trees. There were a few|snapped/leaning power poles along State Line Road but may have been caused by trees falling on lines. Minor property damage was reported at the residence on the west side of State Line Road which included a bent front driveway gate and gutter damage the back of the home. The tornado damaged several small trees as it continued across a pond on the property before dissipating|near the adjacent property to the north.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS New Orleans, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 19, 5:33 AM CDT, 2 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 19, 5:33 AM CDT, 2 minutes before

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In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jun 19, 1:14 AM CDT, 4 hours 21 minutes before

Special Weather Statement
National Weather Service New Orleans LA
114 AM CDT Sat Jun 19 2021

LAZ070-190700-
Lower St. Bernard-
114 AM CDT Sat Jun 19 2021

...A SHOWER CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A WATERSPOUT WILL AFFECT CENTRAL
ST. BERNARD PARISH...

At 113 AM CDT, a shower was located 8 miles southeast of Shell Beach,
or 20 miles northeast of Port Sulphur, moving north at 45 mph.

Waterspouts and winds in excess of 40 mph are possible with this
shower.

This shower will remain over mainly rural areas of central St.
Bernard Parish.

LAT...LON 2975 8963 2987 8963 2989 8959 2999 8958
      3004 8950 3008 8948 3003 8943 3001 8946
      2999 8944 2972 8953 2975 8953 2974 8955
      2972 8954 2972 8957 2976 8958 2974 8961
      2973 8958 2972 8960
TIME...MOT...LOC 0613Z 190DEG 41KT 2978 8958

KLG

Local storm report, Jun 19, 2:15 AM CDT, 3 hours 20 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
215 AM CDT SAT JUN 19 2021

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0214 AM     FLASH FLOOD      KILN                    30.42N 89.43W
06/19/2021                   HANCOCK            MS   EMERGENCY MNGR

            NUMEROUS ROADS CLOSED AND IMPASSABLE DUE TO
            HIGH WATER. A FEW HIGH WATER RESCUES
            NECESSARY WHERE PEOPLE DROVE AROUND
            BARRICADES.

&&

Special weather statement, Jun 19, 2:33 AM CDT, 3 hours 2 minutes before

Special Weather Statement
National Weather Service New Orleans LA
233 AM CDT Sat Jun 19 2021

LAZ058-072-075-190800-
Northwest St. Tammany-Southern Tangipahoa-St. John The Baptist-
233 AM CDT Sat Jun 19 2021

...A SHOWER CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A WATERSPOUT WILL AFFECT
NORTHEASTERN ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND SOUTHEASTERN TANGIPAHOA
PARISHES...

At 232 AM CDT, a shower capable of producing a waterspout near
coastal western Lake Pontchartrain was located 13 miles northeast of
Laplace, moving northeast at 25 mph.

Waterspouts and winds in excess of 40 mph are possible with this
shower.

This shower will remain over mainly rural areas of northeastern St.
John The Baptist and southeastern Tangipahoa Parishes.
This includes Interstate 55 in Louisiana between mile markers 7 and
17.

LAT...LON 3045 9028 3040 9018 3038 9023 3034 9028
      3032 9028 3022 9041 3018 9043 3019 9046
      3028 9040 3030 9042 3046 9036
TIME...MOT...LOC 0732Z 204DEG 22KT 3024 9037

KLG

Local storm report, Jun 19, 3:39 AM CDT, 1 hour 56 minutes before

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Local storm report, Jun 19, 4:21 AM CDT, 1 hour 14 minutes before

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Local storm report, Jun 19, 4:28 AM CDT, 1 hour 7 minutes before

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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

10.6 hours before the tornado, 130 km from the path. June 19, 2021.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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

The surface observations

Mobile/Bates Field (MOB), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:34 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2021 tornado in Mississippi Every tornado in Mississippi since 1950 Warnings in force in Mississippi now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 19, 2021

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
June 19	2:31 AM CDT	EF0	Harrison, MS	1.2	75		$50,000
June 19	3:16 AM CDT	EF0	Mobile, AL	0.1	25	1
June 19	5:08 AM CDT	EF0	Jackson, MS	0.5	25		$15,000
June 19	7:31 AM CDT	EF2	Escambia, AL	22.0	650	20	$3.2 million
June 19	1:31 PM EDT	EF1	Early, GA	29.0	400		$3,000
June 19	1:12 PM CDT	EF0	Covington, AL	0.6	25
June 19	2:05 PM MDT	EF0	Adams, CO	0.0	25
June 19	2:17 PM MDT	EF0	Adams, CO	0.0	25
June 19	2:26 PM MDT	EF0	Adams, CO	0.0	25
June 19	2:34 PM MDT	EF0	Adams, CO	0.0	25
June 19	2:43 PM MDT	EF0	Morgan, CO	0.0	25

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.