EF2 tornado, Whistler to Hiwannee, Mississippi, March 17, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

March 17, 2021

Touchdown

12:03 PM CDT (17:03 UTC)

Lifted

12:22 PM CDT (17:22 UTC)

On the ground

19 minutes

Path length

13.1 miles (21.1 km)

Path width

325 yards (297 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Wayne County

Touchdown point

31.649, -88.907

Lift-off point

31.791, -88.760

Record number

2103171103-01

28 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 135 mph.

• Hardwoods uprooted along the road
• Several uprooted trees narrowly missing a home.
• Numerous trees uprooted and snapped in a convergent pattern. Debris wrapped in trees. Fence uprooted.
• Several hardwoods uprooted in the cow pasture.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A strong cold front moved through the southeast states, triggering a severe weather outbreak that produced several tornadoes along with numerous reports of large hail and damaging winds.

The tornado first touched down just west of Pleasant Grove Strengthford Road. The tornado continued northeast and quickly strengthened as it moved across Overstreet and Braze Overstreet Drive. At Braze Overstreet Drive, the tornado is estimated to have reached EF-2 intensity based on the significant and complete damage to a large area of pine trees. The tornado persisted on a northeast track and reached peak intensity as it destroyed several large, newer chicken houses on Jim West Road just east of Strengthford Cooley Road. The tornado crossed Highway 84 and conitnued northeast, lifting near Waller Ridge Road and Mabry Graham Road. Between Highway 84 and the lifting point, EF-1 intensity damage was noted to primarily trees. A mobile home on Beat 4 Shubuta Road suffered roof damage.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:58 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:38 UTC and running to 23:50 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 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:06 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.

Laurel (LUL), 33 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), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:00 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

32 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.