EF1 tornado, Birmingham to Chapelville, Mississippi, March 24, 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

March 24, 2023

Touchdown

9:45 PM CDT (02:45 UTC)

Lifted

9:57 PM CDT (02:57 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

14.7 miles (23.6 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300,000

County

Lee County

Touchdown point

34.402, -88.786

Lift-off point

34.471, -88.543

Record number

2303242045-01

42 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 100 mph.

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

The first significant event to produce widespread severe weather across the Mid-South for 2023 occurred on March 24, during the afternoon and evening hours. This severe weather episode occurred mainly over portions of the Lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys. Surface analysis for this day depicted a quasi-stationary boundary from the Mid-Atlantic States and Ohio Valley through northern portions of West Tennessee and Arkansas and stretching back through Central Texas. Low pressure tracked along the stalled front into southeast Missouri during the evening. Meanwhile, a potent mid-level trough ejected out of the southwest U.S. Upper air analysis indicated the Lower Mississippi Valley was in the right entrance region of a strong 300 mb upper-level jet streak. This produced sufficient upper-level divergence and lift needed for severe thunderstorm development. ||Moderate instability combined with strong wind shear resulted in a QLCS (Quasi-Linear Convective System) convective mode. This northern part of the QLCS initially started over Western Arkansas Friday afternoon and moved east into Eastern Arkansas by early evening and then across West Tennessee. The northern part of QLCS produced scattered wind damage, flash flooding, and a weak tornado. The southern end of this QLCS scraped across north Mississippi with numerous reports of flash flooding, damaging winds, and several weak tornadoes. ||The most significant storm of the night occurred during the late evening hours of March 24, as thunderstorms developing in advance of the QLCS streamed northeast Calhoun and Chickasaw Counties. A tight and small circulation developed in Chickasaw County (MS) about 5 miles east-northeast of Trebloc and quickly grew in strength as it moved into Monroe County (MS), producing significant damage from New Wren to Amory and Smithville, with the most significant damage occurring in Amory.

The tornado initially touched down just east of the Lee and Union County border at the intersection of County Roads 251 and 2250. A house sustained minor roof damage and had its carport destroyed. The majority of the track was highlighted by snapped and/or uprooted trees, outbuilding damage, and minor roof damage to several homes. The most significant damage occurred near the railroad tracks on Main Street in Guntown, where two large sheds were destroyed and an adjacent house had its wall shifted. The tornado then tracked northeastward to the north side of Five County Sportsman Lake where several trees were damaged. Intermittent damage continued into the northeast portion of the county before dissipating near the Prentiss and Lee County line. Peak winds were estimated at 100 mph.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:37 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:20 UTC and running to 04:24 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 01:14 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 Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:45 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

19 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.