EF2 tornado, Denham to Putnam, 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

3:44 PM CDT (20:44 UTC)

Lifted

4:40 PM CDT (21:40 UTC)

On the ground

56 minutes

Path length

36.6 miles (58.9 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Counties

Wayne, Choctaw, Clarke and Marengo counties

Touchdown point

31.684, -88.486

Lift-off point

32.011, -88.000

Record number

2103171444-03

74 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX and NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• A few pines uprooted. Mostly tree branches down. Tiny convergence pattern noticed
• A few trees snapped. Some tin peeled off the roof of a home.
• Corridor of snapped trees. Power lines down across the road.
• Several pine trees snapped low along both sides of the road.

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.

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.

An active southern jet stream set-up across the southern United States during the middle of March. Several short-wave troughs became negatively tilted as each one traversed across Texas and towards Alabama. This resulted in a single hail event one Monday, March 15, and significant tornado outbreak on Wednesday, March 17. Many supercells began to develop across Central Alabama by midday Wednesday and continued into the evening hours before a squall line moved through the state. Sufficient instability and strong wind shear produced conditions favorable for tornadoes to develop. The event consisted of twenty-one tornadoes in the NWS Birmingham forecast area.

The tornado started on Sunlight Church Road in Wayne County, MS just west of the Choctaw County line. The tornado moved into extreme southwest Choctaw County and produced high end EF-1 intensity damage on CR 2 where several chicken houses were heavily damaged and numerous softwood and hardwood trees were downed or snapped. The tornado lost intensity as it headed northeast toward Silas, but still produced pockets of EF-1 damage especially in the Silas area, near Silas Branch. The tornado continued northeast and produced spotty, mainly light tree damage north of Highway 84 and toward Womack Hill. However, the tornado quickly strengthened and widened as it approached the Tombigbee River and crossed into northwest Clarke County. The tornado produced significant and extensive damage to large swaths of trees from the Trotter Road area right along the river, northeast to Campbell's landing road and to near the Marengo County line. Based on aerial footage of the extensive tree damage, the tornado was given an EF-2 intensity rating. A few river camp houses suffered roof damage. An older home on Campbell's Landing Road was heavily damaged and two people in the home suffered minor injuries. Adjacent modular homes suffered minor damage. It is possible that the path width of the tornado was greater than 400 yards, but additional analysis is needed.

The tornado started on Sunlight Church Road in Wayne County, MS just west of the Choctaw County line. The tornado moved into extreme southwest Choctaw County and produced high end EF-1 intensity damage on CR 2 where several chicken houses were heavily damaged and numerous softwood and hardwood trees were downed or snapped. The tornado lost intensity as it headed northeast toward Silas, but still produced pockets of EF-1 damage especially in the Silas area, near Silas Branch. The tornado continued northeast and produced spotty, mainly light tree damage north of Highway 84 and toward Womack Hill. However, the tornado quickly strengthened and widened as it approached the Tombigbee River and crossed into northwest Clarke County. The tornado produced significant and extensive damage to large swaths of trees from the Trotter Road area right along the river, northeast to Campbell's landing road and to near the Marengo County line. Based on aerial footage of the extensive tree damage, the tornado was given an EF-2 intensity rating. A few river camp houses suffered roof damage. An older home on Campbell's Landing Road was heavily damaged and two people in the home suffered minor injuries. Adjacent modular homes suffered minor damage. It is possible that the path width of the tornado was greater than 400 yards, but additional analysis is needed.

The tornado started on Sunlight Church Road in Wayne County, MS just west of the Choctaw County line. The tornado moved into extreme southwest Choctaw County and produced high end EF-1 intensity damage on CR 2 where several chicken houses were heavily damaged and numerous softwood and hardwood trees were downed or snapped. The tornado lost intensity as it headed northeast toward Silas, but still produced pockets of EF-1 damage especially in the Silas area, near Silas Branch. The tornado continued northeast and produced spotty, mainly light tree damage north of Highway 84 and toward Womack Hill. However, the tornado quickly strengthened and widened as it approached the Tombigbee River and crossed into northwest Clarke County. The tornado produced significant and extensive damage to large swaths of trees from the Trotter Road area right along the river, northeast to Campbell's landing road and to near the Marengo County line. Based on aerial footage of the extensive tree damage, the tornado was given an EF-2 intensity rating. A few river camp houses suffered roof damage. An older home on Campbell's Landing Road was heavily damaged and two people in the home suffered minor injuries. Adjacent modular homes suffered minor damage.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southwest Marengo County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds near 110 mph. This long track tornado began in the NWS Mobile forecast area and traveled almost 35 miles through Wayne, Choctaw, and Clarke Counties as an EF-2 tornado. It weakened to an EF-1 tornado as it crossed into Marengo County. It continued to snap and uproot numerous trees as it crossed Highway 69. The tornado dissipated in a wooded area northeast of Highway 69.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 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.

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.

Meridian/Key Field (MEI), 72 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 130 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:44 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.