Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2021

EF0 tornado, Okolona, Mississippi, March 17, 2021

Name: EF0 tornado, Okolona, Mississippi, March 17, 2021
Start: 2021-03-18T00:31:00.000Z
End: 2021-03-18T00:34:00.000Z
Location: Okolona, Mississippi

This EF0 tornado ran 1.4 miles across Chickasaw County on March 17, 2021, touching down at 7:31 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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: EF0
Date: March 17, 2021
Touchdown: 7:31 PM CDT (00:31 UTC)
Lifted: 7:34 PM CDT (00:34 UTC)
On the ground: 3 minutes
Path length: 1.4 miles (2.2 km)
Path width: 100 yards (91 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $25,000
County: Chickasaw County
Touchdown point: 34.030, -88.804
Lift-off point: 34.048, -88.797
Record number: 2103171831-01

The damage survey

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MEG, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

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 slow-moving warm front lifted north into the Mid-South during the morning hours of March 17th with numerous showers and thunderstorms. Heavy rain produced some flash flooding and there were a couple of severe weather reports along with a couple of damaging lightning strikes. The front stalled across the area during the day with southern parts of the Mid-South, especially northeast Mississippi, becoming quite unstable during the afternoon hours. Additional storms developed during the late afternoon and evening as a cold front pushed into the region resulting in numerous severe storms, including a few tornadoes, across Northeast Mississippi along with flash flooding across the Memphis and Jonesboro areas.

The tornado developed west of County Road 410 to the southwest of Okolona. The tornado damaged a barn and uprooted trees. After crossing County Road 410, the tornado uprooted additional trees and broke large limbs. The tornado dissipated in an open field east of County Road 410 and south of County Road 150. Peak winds were estimated at 75 mph.

The tornado developed near the intersection of Highway 41 and County Road 413, where the tornado downed trees. The tornado��s path was intermittent, as no damage was observed on the north side of Highway 41. The tornado reached its peak intensity as it approached County Road 142. Several trees were uprooted, and an outbuilding was destroyed. The tornado uprooted additional trees on the north side of County Road 142. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph.

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

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 21:37 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.

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 Memphis, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Mar 17, 6:35 PM CDT, 56 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 17, 6:35 PM CDT, 56 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Mar 17, 4:23 PM CDT, 3 hours 8 minutes before

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In the hours before

Special weather statement, Mar 17, 6:26 PM CDT, 1 hour 5 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 17, 6:27 PM CDT, 1 hour 4 minutes before

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Special weather statement, Mar 17, 6:33 PM CDT, 58 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 17, 6:34 PM CDT, 57 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 17, 7:09 PM CDT, 22 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 17, 7:15 PM CDT, 16 minutes before

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The surface observations

Tupelo (TUP), 25 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 Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:34 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 March 17, 2021

32 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
March 17	12:03 PM CDT	EF2	Wayne, MS	13.1	325
March 17	12:31 PM CDT	EF0	Sumter, AL	0.3	70
March 17	12:32 PM CDT	EF2	Dallas, AL	5.1	1,000	2
March 17	12:57 PM CDT	EF1	Sumter, AL	9.8	475
March 17	1:16 PM CDT	EF1	Lincoln, MS	6.2	120		$20,000
March 17	1:24 PM CDT	EF1	Autauga, AL	2.9	150
March 17	1:56 PM CDT	EF1	Chilton, AL	3.0	500
March 17	2:03 PM CDT	EF0	Marengo, AL	0.8	175
March 17	2:12 PM CDT	EF1	Hale, AL	22.0	550
March 17	2:22 PM CDT	EF1	Marengo, AL	2.8	500
March 17	2:26 PM CDT	EF1	Union Parish, LA	2.6	766		$150,000
March 17	2:29 PM CDT	EF0	Coosa, AL	0.1	25
March 17	3:09 PM CDT	EF1	Tuscaloosa, AL	0.5	150
March 17	3:25 PM CDT	EF1	Tuscaloosa, AL	3.5	650
March 17	3:44 PM CDT	EF2	Wayne, MS to AL	36.6	500	2
March 17	3:54 PM CDT	EF1	Tuscaloosa, AL	5.8	650
March 17	4:07 PM CDT	EF1	Wilkinson, MS	6.8	100
March 17	4:11 PM CDT	EF0	Dallas, AL	1.1	75
March 17	4:30 PM CDT	EF1	Jefferson, AL	2.8	650
March 17	4:37 PM CDT	EF0	Desha, AR	0.1	10
March 17	4:54 PM CDT	EF0	Marengo, AL	1.8	75
March 17	4:56 PM CDT	EF0	Jefferson, AL	3.5	660	1
March 17	5:12 PM CDT	EF2	Chilton, AL	5.8	400
March 17	5:30 PM CDT	EF1	Barry, MO	23.7	75		$60,000
March 17	5:43 PM CDT	EF1	Blount, AL	12.9	300
March 17	6:16 PM CDT	EF0	Lamar, MS	1.4	300		$75,000
March 17	7:25 PM CDT	EF0	Chickasaw, MS	0.5	50		$25,000
March 17	7:39 PM CDT	EF0	Lee, MS	4.9	60		$35,000
March 17	7:56 PM CDT	EF0	Kemper, MS	0.2	80		$5,000
March 17	8:35 PM CDT	EF0	Autauga, AL	0.1	75
March 17	9:31 PM CDT	EF1	Cullman, AL	8.5	150
March 17	10:43 PM CDT	EF0	Montgomery, AL	0.3	140

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.