Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2021

EF0 tornado, Verona to Mooreville, Mississippi, June 8, 2021

From Verona to Mooreville, this EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Lee County on June 8, 2021, touching down at 2:28 PM 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 8, 2021
Touchdown
2:28 PM CDT (19:28 UTC)
Lifted
2:29 PM CDT (19:29 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Lee County
Touchdown point
34.213, -88.711
Lift-off point
34.216, -88.705
Record number
2106081328-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper low parked over the Mid-South resulted in widespread showers and thunderstorms across North Mississippi during the early morning hours of June 8, 2021. Some locations received up to 4 inches of rain before sunrise which set the stage for flash flooding later that morning into the afternoon as a mesoscale convective vortex pushed into the Mid-South. This feature resulted in several areas of showers and thunderstorms moving across North Mississippi during the day with numerous reports of flash flooding and 24-hour rainfall totals of more than 6 inches. During the afternoon enough surface-based instability developed to support a few severe storms with damaging winds and a weak tornado.

A weak tornado touched down just west of Verona. A few trees were knocked down. Peak winds were estimated at 60 mph.

A weak tornado touched down near Highway 45 and Highway 278. Large drainage pipes were thrown across the highway and a fence was knocked down around a business. A 53-foot trailer was flipped over. Peak estimated winds were 70 mph.

A weak tornado touched down near County Road 1479 north of Mooreville. A few trees were knocked down causing minor damage to a mobile home and vehicle. Peak winds were estimated at 65 mph.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:27 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
07:33 UTC08:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryMEG
11:58 UTC00:00 UTCFlash Flood WatchMEG
19:07 UTC19:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
19:26 UTC20:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
19:27 UTC20:00 UTCTornado WarningMEG
19:55 UTC23:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningMEG
20:20 UTC23:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryMEG
23:12 UTC23:43 UTCTornado WarningMEG

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 16:54 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.

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z

7.5 hours before the tornado, 133 km from the path. June 8, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2021-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 215 joules per kilogram, CIN -54, lifted condensation level 603 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, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2021-06-08The 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 101 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
215 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-54 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
603 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
101 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
102 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z

4.5 hours after it, 133 km from the path. June 9, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2021-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 69 joules per kilogram, CIN -185, lifted condensation level 917 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, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2021-06-09The 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 89 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 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
69 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-185 J/kg
Surface CAPE
404 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
917 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
89 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
146 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:28 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
17:20 UTCFLASH FLOOD3 W MyrtleUnion, MSAT LEAST 6 INCHES OF FLOWING WATER OVER CR 7 AND CR 299 WEST OF MYRTLE.
19:00 UTCFLASH FLOODNew AlbanyUnion, MSSEVERAL CARS STALLED IN FLOODWATERS IN DOWNTOWN NEW ALBANY. WATER IS SEVERAL FEET DEEP IN SOME LOCATIONS, INCLUDING MAIN STREET.
19:28 UTCTORNADO2 Nne VeronaLee, MSVIDEO OF A WEAK TORNADO NEAR HIGHWAY 45 AND HIGHWAY 278. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
19:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGVeronaLee, MSSEVERAL TREES DOWN IN PALMETTO AND VERONA AREAS AND A LARGE TREE DOWN ON HOUSE IN VERONA.
19:42 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 E TupeloLee, MSFUNNEL CLOUD PASSED OVER HIGHWAY 22 NEAR AUBURN ROAD. FUNNEL DROPPED HALFWAY TO GROUND.
19:43 UTCTSTM WND DMGNe VeronaLee, MSA 53 FOOT TRAILER WAS FLIPPED OVER NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 45 AND US 278 NORTHEAST OF VERONNA.
19:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGVeronaLee, MSAT HIGHWAY 45 AND PONTOTOC PKWY LARGE DRAINAGE PIPES THROWN ACROSS THE HIGHWAY AND A FENCE KNOCKED DOWN AROUND A BUSINESS IN VERONA.
19:47 UTCTSTM WND DMG7 E TupeloLee, MSTREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN MOOREVILLE.
20:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGFairviewItawamba, MSTREE DOWN ACROSS HIGHWAY 25 IN FRONT OF FAIRVIEW SCHOOL.
20:33 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nw EvergreenLee, MSTREE ACROSS 363 NORTH OF FRIENDSHIP BAPTIST CHURCH.
20:56 UTCFLASH FLOOD5 Wsw IngomarUnion, MSPORTIONS OF COUNTY ROADS 102 AND 104 CLOSED DUE TO FLASH FLOODING.
21:00 UTCFLASH FLOOD3 S New HarmonyPontotoc, MSCOUNTY ROAD 102 REMAINS CLOSED DUE TO FLASH FLOODING.

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 8, 2021

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 89:11 AM CDTEF0Smith, TX1.640$5,000
June 810:02 AM CDTEF0Cherokee, TX0.320$1,000
June 810:23 AM CDTEF0Cherokee, TX0.120$5,000
June 81:42 PM CDTEF0Spencer, IN0.115
June 82:26 PM CDTEF0Lee, MS0.550$5,000
June 82:42 PM CDTEF0Lee, MS0.450$10,000
June 85:25 PM CDTEF0Gibson, IN1.3601$20,000
June 87:12 PM EDTEF1Pike, IN2.530$3,000
June 86:18 PM MDTEF0Corson, SD0.210

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.