EF1 tornado, Coles to East Fork, Mississippi, March 11, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

March 11, 2026

Touchdown

7:09 PM CDT (00:09 UTC)

Lifted

7:12 PM CDT (00:12 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.2 miles (3.6 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Amite County

Touchdown point

31.259, -91.029

Lift-off point

31.235, -91.007

Highest wind the damage implies

90 mph

Surveyed by

NWS LIX

The office's name for it

Coles

Survey last edited

June 8, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

The damage path of an EF-1 tornado with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph was identified via high resolution satellite imagery in northwest Amite County, north of Gloster, MS. This tornado caused damage and displacement to several trees including a swath west of Hwy 33 concurrent with an EF-1. Additional tree damage was identified along Hwy 33 near Homochitto Rd. This was corroborated by EM report of tree damage north of Gloster which also was collocated with a strong area of rotation on KHDC radar.

Written by NWS LIX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

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

• Minor tree damage on high res satellite imagery.
• Patch of minor tree damage on high res satellite imagery.
• Trees damaged on high res satellite imagery.
• Trees displaced on high res satellite imagery.

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

Environmental conditions favorable for a QLCS (Quasi-Linear Convective System) tornado event developed across southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi during the afternoon and evening hours of March 11th. An upper-level storm system moving east from Texas overspread a very moist and increasingly unstable air mass in place across the region. At the same time, intense low-level wind shear and strong atmospheric spin developed as southerly winds strengthened ahead of an approaching line of storms with bowing segments.||The combination of rich Gulf moisture, strong low-level atmospheric spin, and a fast-moving line of thunderstorms created an environment supportive of embedded rotating circulations along the leading edge of the QLCS. As that line moved west to east across the local area, several rapidly developing tornadoes formed within these circulations. A total of 6 tornadoes were confirmed across southwest Mississippi and multiple reports of damaging straight-line winds were also received.

The damage path of an EF-1 tornado with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph and max width of 200 yards was identified via high resolution satellite imagery in northwest Amite County, north of Gloster, MS. This tornado caused damage and displacement to several trees including a swath west of Hwy 33 concurrent with an EF-1. Additional tree damage was identified along Hwy 33 near Homochitto Rd. This was corroborated by EM report of tree damage north of Gloster which also was collocated with a strong area of rotation on KHDC radar.

The damage path of an EF-0 tornado with maximum sustained winds near 85 mph and peak width of 150 yards was identified on high resolution satellite imagery in rural Amite County, north of Liberty, MS. Damage to tree tops were identified west of Pecan Rd. A focused path of damaged and displaced trees continued east-southeast through Meadville and Freeman Rd. The tornado evidently lifted after crossing Hwy 569, prior to reaching Newman Rd where no other damage could be identified. This damage path was collocated with a strong area of rotation of KHDC radar imagery.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:56 UTC and running to 02:23 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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 Hammond radar (KHDC), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:09 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 2026 tornado in MississippiEvery tornado in Mississippi since 1950Warnings in force in Mississippi nowThe forecast where you are

56 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.