EF1 tornado, Otho to Newton, Mississippi, April 5, 2022

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

April 5, 2022

Touchdown

7:09 AM CDT (12:09 UTC)

Lifted

7:12 AM CDT (12:12 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.1 miles (3.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

Counties

Scott and Newton counties

Touchdown point

32.300, -89.332

Lift-off point

32.303, -89.294

Record number

2204050609-01

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 EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

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

A low pressure system moving east along the Arkansas Louisiana border helped to organize a line of severe thunderstorms early in the morning of April 5th. Widespread severe wind gusts and several tornadoes occurred with this squall line as it moved east across Mississippi. Some hail also occurred with these storms.

An EF-1 tornado began near Zion Church Road, uprooted trees in the area, and continued east across Hopewell Road and McLauren Road. It damaged the roof of an outbuilding as it crossed Robert Moore Road, then blew down trees and power lines across MS Highway 501 where the tornado began to widen. A tree was blown down onto a home near this area as well. The tornado reached its greatest intensity as it crossed Sherman Hill Road, snapping a higher percentage of trees in this area. The tornado then weakened and lifted west of Mudline Road. A tornadic debris signature was detected by radar with this tornado. The estimated maximum wind gust was 110 mph.

A brief EF-1 tornado began near Bienville National Forest Road 551D where it uprooted trees. It then crossed into southwestern Newton County. The total path for this tornado was 2.27 miles across both counties. A tornadic debris signature was detected by radar with this tornado. The estimated maximum wind gust for the portion of this tornado in Scott County was 90 mph.

A brief EF-1 tornado began in southeastern Scott County and then weakened as it crossed into southwestern Newton County and caused mainly minor tree damage. The tornado damaged doors on a farm outbuilding near Ponderosa Road and then dissipated. The total path for this tornado was 2.27 miles across both counties. A tornadic debris signature was detected by radar with this tornado. The highest damage rating for the portion of this tornado in Newton County was EF-0 with an estimated maximum wind gust of 80 mph.

An EF-1 tornado began on the east side of the Lawrence community and just south of US Highway 80 and the Kansas City Southern railroad, where it uprooted trees and damaged a shed near the intersection with Greenie Morrow Road. As the tornado continued eastward, it largely paralleled Highway 80 for much of its duration and continued to uproot and snap multiple trees. A shed was destroyed near Lawrence Bethel Road, and another building was heavily damaged near Morgan Field Road. The tornado was recorded by security cameras as it passed the MDOT facility on the south side of Highway 80. As the tornado moved into the north side of the city of Newton, a home near Ford Avenue sustained roof damage. The tornado then began to weaken, damaged a fence on Scanlan Street, and finally lifted in the vicinity of Decatur Street and Old Hickory Road. The estimated maximum wind gust was 100 mph. A tornadic debris signature was detected by radar with this tornado.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:47 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:20 UTC and running to 13:05 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 05:18 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.

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:07 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 2022 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

66 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 67 of them

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.