EF1 tornado, Wilkinson, 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

March 17, 2021

Touchdown

4:07 PM CDT (21:07 UTC)

Lifted

4:16 PM CDT (21:16 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

6.8 miles (10.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Wilkinson County

Touchdown point

31.234, -91.335

Lift-off point

31.274, -91.233

Record number

2103171507-01

12 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.

• Hardwood trees uprooted. Softwood tree snapped.
• Trees uprooted and snapped across Carter Loop Road.
• Tree damage visible on high resolution satellite imagery on March 21, 2021.
• Tree damage visible on high resolution satellite imagery.

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

In the afternoon hours on March 17th,2021 a potent negatively tilted shortwave trough axis aided in ample downstream divergence to support strengthening low-level surface cyclogenesis across Arkansas. Ahead of this system, ample unstable air accompanied a large portion of the northern Gulf coast, combined with approaching and intensifying low-level shear to produce organized severe thunderstorms across the northern portions of southeastern Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi.

A one mile long, 100 yard wide, ef0 tornado with max winds of 85 mph touched down just west of highway 61 north in Wilkinson county, MS. The tornado was recorded crossing the highway by a storm chaser. Survey results from the emergency manager noted two main areas of tree damage, along the highway and off carter loop road.

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

37 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:30 UTC, 37 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:38 UTC and running to 00:01 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 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.

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.