EF1 tornado, Smithburg to Lehr, Mississippi, May 6, 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

May 6, 2026

Touchdown

5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC)

Lifted

5:58 PM CDT (22:58 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

7.4 miles (11.9 km)

Path width

175 yards (160 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Pike and Walthall counties

Touchdown point

31.019, -90.291

Lift-off point

31.053, -90.174

Highest wind the damage implies

100 mph

Surveyed by

NWS LIX

The office's name for it

Smithburg-Dillon, MS Tornado

Survey last edited

June 8, 2026

Record number

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

A NWS ground survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph tracked across portions of southeast Pike and southwest Walthall counties. This tornado began near Smithburg, MS at the intersection of Mount Herman Road and Silver Drive where it uprooted a tree and snapped branches. Additional EF-0 tree damage was identified on Blanchard and Smithburg roads. The tornado peaked in intensity as an EF-1 as it approached and crossed over Harold Alford and Magnolia roads uprooting and snapping several trees as well as taking down wooden transmission lines. The tornado then weakened causing EF-0 damage to trees and removed metal panels from an industrial chicken coop as it approached Brockdale Rd and then crossed the Bogue Chitto River. The end point of this tornado is estimated to be after it crossed MS Hwy 27 where it caused additional tree damage in a confluent pattern.

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

A slowly advancing cold front was positioned beneath strong west-southwesterly flow downstream of a broad upper-level trough with embedded shortwaves. A moist low level layer and strong instability combined with strengthening deep-layer and low-level wind shear to support discrete supercells across southwest and southern Mississippi during the late afternoon and evening. These storms produced large hail and multiple tornadoes over southwest Mississippi, one EF1 and one EF2 tornado.

A NWS ground survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph tracked across portions of southeast Pike. This tornado began near Smithburg, MS at the intersection of Mount Herman Road Silver Drive where it uprooted a tree and snapped branches. Additional EF-0 tree damage was identified on Blanchard and Smithburg roads. The tornado peaked in intensity as an EF-1 as it crossed over Harold Alford Road uprooting and snapping several trees as well as taking down wooden transmission lines. At this point, the tornado exited Pike County and entered Walthall County.

A NWS ground survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph tracked across portions of southeast Pike County and entered Walthall County near Harold Alford Road. It was uprooting and snapping several trees as well as taking down wooden transmission lines as it traversed this area. The tornado then weakened caused EF-0 damage to trees as it crossed Brockdale Rd and the Bogue Chitto River. The end point of this tornado is estimated to be after it crossed MS Hwy 27 after it caused additional tree damage in a confluent pattern.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:38 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:57 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 04:00 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 19:48 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), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:46 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

9 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.