EF0 tornado, Arena, Mississippi, March 30, 2022

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

March 30, 2022

Touchdown

10:25 PM CDT (03:25 UTC)

Lifted

10:34 PM CDT (03:34 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

4.1 miles (6.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

30.658, -88.426

Lift-off point

30.682, -88.410

Record number

2203302125-02

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX and NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• A few shingles lifted on home roof; fence blown over; twig debris; metal roofing from shed tossed into street sign; small 20yrd wide convergent pattern, difficult to find.
• Roof damage to barn; metal roofing blown off a shed; greenhouse tent damaged; larger tree branch snaps
• A couple snaps, fence down, awning blown down, basketball hoop blown into brick pillar, several tree branches down
• Large uproot, snaps, fencing down, minor roof damage on home, garage damaged, tree branches down

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

A strong upper level disturbance and surface low produced a line of severe thunderstorms with embedded tornadoes that impacted Southern Mississippi during the late afternoon and evening hours of Wednesday March 30, 2022. This line of thunderstorms produced straight line wind damage and a few tornadoes in the area. The strongest tornado was reported in rural areas of northern Jackson County, MS. There were also very strong gradient winds that impacted the region during the early afternoon hours and several wind gusts in excess of 50 mph were reported. 2 tornadoes developed in Mississippi from this event.

NWS Storm survey confirmed a brief EF-0 tornado with estimated winds of 75 mph. The tornado touched down near Harry Pierce Road and moved northeast into Alabama and lifted just east of State Line Road. This was mostly due to tree damage and seeing a debris signature on radar. This did continue into NWS Mobile's area of responsibility for approximately 1 additional mile.

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

38 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:47 UTC, 38 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:41 UTC and running to 04:07 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 00:57 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.

Mobile/Bates Field (MOB), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:26 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

80 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 81 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.