EF2 tornado, Acona to Durant, Mississippi, May 2, 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

May 2, 2021

Touchdown

6:31 PM CDT (23:31 UTC)

Lifted

6:40 PM CDT (23:40 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

6.0 miles (9.6 km)

Path width

510 yards (466 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

Counties

Holmes and Carroll counties

Touchdown point

33.251, -90.043

Lift-off point

33.322, -89.983

Record number

2105021731-01

41 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Trees down, few on a home, one on a school bus.
• Shingles damage to an old building
• Tree on home, roof damage, shed destroyed, heavy tree damage where nearly all trees in center of path damaged

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

An upper-level shortwave trough moved from East Texas across Arkansas during the afternoon of May 2nd. At the surface, a warm front associated with the system developed and lifted north across Mississippi. Severe thunderstorms developed along and south of the warm front through the afternoon and evening, producing several tornadoes and scattered wind damage extending from the southwestern and west-central Mississippi toward north-central and northeastern portions of the state.

This EF2 tornado touched down in the Acona Community near the intersection of Highway 17 and Holly Grove Rd. Multiple trees were uprooted along Highway 17 with many others damaged. The tornado crossed Henderson Rd, where more trees were downed and a power line was down. The tornado moved through a wooded area west of the highway before crossing it just on the south side of the Carroll County line. This area is where the tornado reached peak intensity with max winds around 115 mph. Extensive tree damaged was noted west of the highway on some personal property. Here, a home was damaged as well with a tree on a part of it and moderate roof damage. A part of a high tension line was down due to a tree. Extensive tree damage was noted as the tornado crossed Highway 17. After entering Carroll County, the tornado weakened as it crossed New Zion Rd and then dissipated right at Highway 430. |The total path length was 5.95 miles across the two counties.

This EF2 tornado touched down in the Acona Community near the intersection of Highway 17 and Holly Grove Rd. Multiple trees were uprooted along Highway 17 with many others damaged. The tornado crossed Henderson Rd, where more trees were downed and a power line was down. The tornado moved through a wooded area west of the highway before crossing it just on the south side of the Carroll County line. This area is where the tornado reached peak intensity with max winds around 115 mph. Extensive tree damaged was noted west of the highway on some personal property. Here, a home was damaged as well with a tree on a part of it and moderate roof damage. A part of a high tension line was down due to a tree. Extensive tree damage was noted as the tornado crossed Highway 17. After entering Carroll County, the tornado weakened as it crossed New Zion Rd and then dissipated right at Highway 430. The total path length was 5.95 miles. The estimated wind speed in Carroll County was 110 mph. Maximum width of the tornado was 510 yards.

An EF-1 tornado touched down along Interstate 55 and Castalian Springs Road west of Durant and moved generally parallel to the Interstate on the west side of town. It snapped, uprooted, and damaged many trees along its path. The strongest phase of the tornado appeared to be as it crossed MS Highway 12 and Bowling Green Road. As it crossed Highway 12, multiple trees were damaged with one blown down onto a home and another down on a parked school bus. As the tornado crossed Bowling Green Road, a power pole and section of power lines were blown down. Several trees were also snapped or uprooted in the area. It continued across Huckleberry Road where an older building had roof damage, and then it dissipated after crossing Pilgram Church Road. Maximum winds were estimated to be 100 mph.

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

35 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:56 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:39 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:46 UTC and running to 01:59 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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.

Greenwood/Leflore (GWO), 24 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), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:27 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

26 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.