Tornadoes · United States · Mississippi · 2025

EF1 tornado, Union, Mississippi, March 31, 2025

This EF1 tornado ran 3.3 miles across Simpson County on March 31, 2025, touching down at 5:37 AM CDT and reaching 340 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $300,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
March 31, 2025
Touchdown
5:37 AM CDT (10:37 UTC)
Lifted
5:41 AM CDT (10:41 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
3.3 miles (5.2 km)
Path width
340 yards (311 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$300,000
County
Simpson County
Touchdown point
31.880, -90.120
Lift-off point
31.890, -90.070
Record number
2503310437-01

The damage survey

16 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 100 mph.

  • Part of a pivot pushed over

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

A line of severe storms pushed across the region and produced damaging wind gusts that downed trees and power lines, and damaged several structures during the early morning hours of the 31st. Ahead of the storms, strong gradient winds also produced damage to a similar degree.

This brief tornado touched down along Highway 28 and tracked ENE mainly just to the north of Highway 28 through the Union community before dissipating just beyond Highway 469. Minor tree damage was noted initially, then part of an irrigation pivot was overturned in a field and a more focused area of tree damage, snapped and uprooted, occurred as it crossed L Rodgers and Bethlehem Roads. Here, trees downed a line, damaged a shed and another was on a home. A few more trees were uprooted along Highway 469 before it dissipated.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 06:35 UTC and running to 12:17 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:35 UTC12:17 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchJAN
09:42 UTC10:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN
10:38 UTC11:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAN

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:45 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

10.6 hours before the tornado, 48 km from the path. March 31, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2025-03-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1048 joules per kilogram, CIN -79, lifted condensation level 1759 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2025-03-31The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 10 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1048 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-79 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1857 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1759 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
10 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:37 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
10:37 UTCTORNADO2 W UnionSimpson, MSThis brief tornado touched down along Highway 28 and tracked ENE mainly just to the north of Highway 28 through the Union community before dissipating just beyond Highway 469. Minor tree damage was noted initially, then
10:40 UTCTSTM WND DMGUnionSimpson, MSA few trees down and some on a home at Hwy 28 and Bethlahem Road. Possible tornado.
10:41 UTCTSTM WND GST 65Jan AirportRankin, MSEstimated by NWS employees. ASOS wind sensor failed during highest wind.
10:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nne Jan AirportRankin, MSCedar tree snapped along Old Fannin Rd. Additional large limbs down in the area.
10:46 UTCTSTM WND DMGShiversSimpson, MSTree on a home, hwy 43 and Shivers road. Additional trees down in the SW part of the county.
10:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ene RuthLincoln, MSA few trees were down in the SE part of the county.
10:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sse MendenhallSimpson, MSTree down on a home on Athens Road.
11:03 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Ese ArmLawrence, MSTwo trees down, one on a shed.
11:08 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 N Society HillJefferson Davis, MSA couple trees down in the Oak Vale and Society Hill areas.
11:12 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Nnw BassfieldJefferson Davis, MSA couple trees down.
11:24 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Sse CollinsCovington, MSMultiple trees down along Craft, Cold Spring and Hwy 49.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 31, 2025

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 314:22 AM CDTEF2Saint Landry Parish, LA1.8250$30,000
March 316:01 AM CDTEF0Lowndes, MS0.760$5,000
March 316:07 AM CDTEF1Lowndes, MS5.8300$200,000
March 316:30 AM CDTEF2Marion, MS7.3300$2.3 million
March 316:54 AM CDTEF0Livingston Parish, LA3.225
March 3112:10 PM EDTEF0Carroll, GA5.3300
March 3112:32 PM EDTEF0Coweta, GA5.0250
March 3112:54 PM EDTEF0Fayette, GA0.2100
March 311:08 PM EDTEF1Henry, GA6.5100
March 3112:22 PM CDTEF0Dale, AL0.750$25,000
March 3112:31 PM CDTEF1Houston, AL3.12005$500,000
March 312:11 PM EDTEF0Peach, GA6.9100
March 312:13 PM EDTEF0Houston, GA3.6100
March 313:46 PM EDTEF0Leon, FL1.9100

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.