EF3 Tornado — Lee, Mississippi

2008-05-08 · near (tup)lemons Arpt Tup, Lee, Mississippi

Event narrative

The initial tornado touchdown occurred 1.5 miles west of the Tupelo Regional Airport. The tornado traveled northeast across Northern Lee County moving just north of the Tupelo Regional Airport. The tornado reached its maximum intensity as it hit the Furniture Market Mississippi building on Coley Road and Chesterville Road. The tornado continued to produce significant damage on North Gloster Road near the Barnes Crossing Mall. The tornado continued moving northeast and crossed U.S. Highway 45 where it struck a farm supply store. Several cars were damaged by flying debris, tractor trailers were overturned and part of the supply store roof was torn off. Next to the farm supply store, a marine and outdoor store was also hit where several boats were damaged and the roof was partially torn off. Also, a large hardware store, a medical complex and a Mississippi Department of Transportation district office were among other buildings damaged. The tornado moved northeast uprooting and snapping large trees as well as producing minor roof damage to several homes before lifting about 3 miles south southeast of Saltillo.

Wider weather episode

A weak warm front was located across North Mississippi during the morning of May 8th, 2008. Isolated thunderstorms began developing along the front. One thunderstorm quickly became severe and produced a significant tornado. Damaging winds, large hail, flash flooding and a weak tornado occurred from other thunderstorms.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.2599, -88.7935)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 107335. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.