EF1 tornado, Smithville, Mississippi, February 16, 2023

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

February 16, 2023

Touchdown

3:52 PM CST (21:52 UTC)

Lifted

3:55 PM CST (21:55 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Monroe County

Touchdown point

34.061, -88.453

Lift-off point

34.074, -88.429

Record number

2302161552-01

19 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MEG, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• Numerous trees uprooted and snapped
• End of visible track through wooded area.
• Beginning of visible track through heavily wooded area

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

A warm front lifted north of the area and warm, moist, and unstable air flowed into the Mid-South during the morning hours of February 16, 2023. A strong upper-level jet streak across the Great Lakes produced ascent across the Mid-South resulting in showers and thunderstorms with heavy rainfall and flash flooding across West Tennessee. Later in the day as the cold front approached, thunderstorms intensified and produced a few tornadoes across northeast Mississippi.

Tree damage was noted across the wooded area between the Tombigbee River and the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway west of Smithville. A swath of trees, approximately 100 yards wide, was uprooted or snapped just north of the end of Durrett Landing Road. The tornado began to weaken and occlude as it crossed Blue Water Creek, resulting in sporadic uprooted trees. Maximum winds were estimated at 90 mph with a maximum path width of 100 yards. Survey information aided by PERiLS drone surveillance.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:45 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:05 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:00 UTC and running to 23:47 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:33 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.

Aberdeen (M40), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 22 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:52 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 2023 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.