Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2021
EF0 tornado, Thomastown to Bolatushu, Mississippi, May 2, 2021
From Thomastown to Bolatushu, this EF0 tornado ran 2.9 miles across Leake County on May 2, 2021, touching down at 8:17 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
- May 2, 2021
- Touchdown
- 8:17 PM CDT (01:17 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:23 PM CDT (01:23 UTC)
- On the ground
- 6 minutes
- Path length
- 2.9 miles (4.7 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- County
- Leake County
- Touchdown point
- 32.878, -89.708
- Lift-off point
- 32.910, -89.675
- Record number
- 2105021917-01
The damage survey
12 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 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
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.
An EF-0 tornado touched down in a wooded area south of Willis Lane and tracked northeast across Mississippi Highway 429, outside of Thomastown. A handful of trees were uprooted at this location. Additional pine trees were snapped on the edge of a field east of Highway 429. Maximum estimated winds were 80 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
33 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:44 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:32 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:46 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:46 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | JAN |
| 00:44 UTC | 01:32 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAN |
| 16:52 UTC | 23:23 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | JAN |
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 forecast that day
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 00:49 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 air that afternoon
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.
Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z
1.3 hours before the tornado, 73 km from the path. May 3, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 829 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 851 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 755 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 46 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 233 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 369 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.0
- Supercell composite
- 7.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.9 K/km
Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z
10.7 hours after it, 73 km from the path. May 3, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1391 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -38 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1049 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 666 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 212 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 281 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.2
- Supercell composite
- 5.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
The radar
The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:17 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:53 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Wnw Coxburg | Holmes, MS | THIS EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST SOUTH OF YELLOW BLUFF RD AND TRACKED NNE FOR ROUGHLY 10.6 MILES. MANY DAMAGED AND SNAPPED TREES WERE THE INITIAL DAMAGED AS THIS PORTION OF SW HOLMES COUNTY IS ON THE EDGE OF THE BLUFFS |
| 22:55 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nne Tolarville | Holmes, MS | PUBLIC REPORTED A TORNADO SOUTHWEST OF LEXINGTON. THEY WERE ON HIGHWAY 12 AND COULD SEE THE STORM IN THE DISTANCE. |
| 23:31 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Sw Acona | Holmes, MS | 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 |
| 23:32 UTC | TORNADO | 1 N Acona | Holmes, MS | TEN TO TWELVE TREES WERE DOWNED ALONG HIGH 17 NEAR THE HOLMES/CARROLL COUNTY LINE. |
| 23:34 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Black Hawk | Carroll, MS | TIN ROOF WAS BLOWN OFF OF A BUILDING AT THE CEDAR HILL RANCH. |
| 23:34 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Ne Acona | Carroll, MS | A ROUGHLY 100 YARD SWATH OF TREES AND POWERLINES WERE DOWNED ALONG CR 166. |
| 23:38 UTC | TORNADO | 2 E Black Hawk | Carroll, MS | TREE WAS DOWN ACROSS HWY 430. |
| 23:44 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nw Midway | Yazoo, MS | THE SAME CELL THAT PRODUCED THE SATARTIA/YAZOO CITY TORNADO PRODUCED ANOTHER WEAK TORNADO THAT BEGAN ALONG SAXTON RD NEAR THE MIDWAY COMMUNITY. MAINLY TREE AND TREE LIMB DAMAGE OCCURRED ALONG THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO, WH |
| 00:20 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Wsw Durant | Holmes, MS | THIS EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ALONG I-55 AND CASTALIAN SPRINGS RD, WEST OF DURANT, AND TRACKED NE FOR JUST OVER 4 MILES. MOST OF THE DAMAGE WAS DONE TO TREES WITH BROKEN LIMBS ALONG WITH MANY SNAPPED AND UPROOTED TREES. |
| 00:33 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Possumneck | Attala, MS | HEADSTONES TURNED OVER IN CEMETERY, TREE DAMAGE, SHINGLES DAMAGED ON HOUSE, TREETOP THROUGH HEADSTONE. |
| 00:41 UTC | TORNADO | 3 W Cameron | Madison, MS | THIS EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN A WOODED AREA JUST OFF SIMPSON RD IN FAR NORTHERN MADISON COUNTY. IT TRACKED NE FOR JUST OVER 3 MILES BEFORE DISSIPATING AS IT APPROACHED THE ATTALA COUNTY LINE. MULTIPLE TREES WERE DAMAG |
| 00:42 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Sw Carmack | Attala, MS | THIS EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF HIGHWAY 440 ON A CHURCH PROPERTY. A FEW TREES WERE DAMAGED HERE AND A POWER LINE DOWN. ALONG HIGHWAY 440, A FEW MORE TREES WERE DAMAGED AND SOME MINOR ROOF DAMAGE O |
| 00:44 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Ne Possumneck | Attala, MS | TORNADO REPORTED NORTH OF US HIGHWAY 440, EAST OF WEST, MS. |
| 01:14 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Stewart | Choctaw, MS | CORRECTS PREVIOUS TSTM WND DMG REPORT FROM 3 S STEWART. TREES DOWN ON STEWART LAKE ROAD. |
| 01:17 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Stewart | Choctaw, MS | TREES DOWN ON STEWART LAKE ROAD. |
| 01:17 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Nw Thomastown | Leake, MS | THIS EF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN A WOODED AREA AND TRACKED NE WHERE IT CROSSED HIGHWAY 429, OUTSIDE OF THOMASTOWN. A HANDFUL OF TREES WERE UPROOTED AT THIS LOCATION. ADDITIONAL PINE TREES WERE SNAPPED ON THE EDGE OF A FI |
| 01:18 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 N Huntsville | Montgomery, MS | TREES DOWN. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 2, 2021
26 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2 | 3:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Greene, AL | 1.4 | 45 | |||
| May 2 | 4:57 PM CDT | Unrated | Madison Parish, LA | 1.4 | 25 | |||
| May 2 | 5:25 PM CDT | Unrated | Tuscaloosa, AL | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| May 2 | 4:26 PM MDT | Unrated | Bent, CO | 0.9 | 20 | |||
| May 2 | 5:46 PM CDT | Unrated | LaSalle Parish, LA | 1.2 | 25 | |||
| May 2 | 5:46 PM CDT | EF1 | Issaquena, MS | 30.1 | 300 | $505,000 | ||
| May 2 | 5:53 PM CDT | EF1 | Holmes, MS | 10.6 | 450 | $40,000 | ||
| May 2 | 5:55 PM CDT | EF1 | Jefferson, MS | 14.0 | 650 | $30,000 | ||
| May 2 | 6:31 PM CDT | EF2 | Holmes, MS | 6.0 | 510 | $75,000 | ||
| May 2 | 6:44 PM CDT | EF0 | Yazoo, MS | 8.2 | 100 | $15,000 | ||
| May 2 | 6:52 PM CDT | EF0 | Union Parish, LA | 0.1 | 80 | |||
| May 2 | 7:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Holmes, MS | 4.2 | 300 | $100,000 | ||
| May 2 | 7:22 PM CDT | EF1 | Hinds, MS | 6.9 | 1,000 | $200,000 | ||
| May 2 | 7:41 PM CDT | EF1 | Madison, MS | 3.4 | 250 | $8,000 | ||
| May 2 | 7:42 PM CDT | EF1 | Attala, MS | 7.5 | 110 | $20,000 | ||
| May 2 | 7:51 PM CDT | Unrated | Hamilton, NE | 0.0 | 40 | |||
| May 2 | 7:51 PM CDT | EF0 | Hamilton, NE | 0.9 | 150 | $45,000 | ||
| May 2 | 7:57 PM CDT | EF0 | Kearney, NE | 1.7 | 150 | |||
| May 2 | 8:06 PM CDT | EF0 | Polk, NE | 1.3 | 100 | $45,000 | ||
| May 2 | 8:08 PM CDT | EF0 | Calhoun, MS | 1.3 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| May 2 | 8:23 PM CDT | EF0 | Choctaw, MS | 2.1 | 60 | $5,000 | ||
| May 2 | 8:30 PM CDT | EF1 | Calhoun, MS | 2.1 | 50 | $500,000 | ||
| May 2 | 9:15 PM CDT | EF0 | Chickasaw, MS | 7.5 | 50 | $25,000 | ||
| May 2 | 9:40 PM CDT | EF1 | Pontotoc, MS | 4.5 | 150 | $125,000 | ||
| May 2 | 9:53 PM CDT | EF1 | Lee, MS | 12.7 | 400 | $1.0 million | ||
| May 2 | 10:22 PM CDT | EF0 | Lee, MS | 2.0 | 100 | $25,000 |
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.