EF1 tornado in Tunica County, Mississippi

A tornado formed just northeast of the Tunica airport and tracked northeast through rural Tunica and Desoto counties. A large number of homes and a church a few miles northeast of the airport suffered roof damage. Several sheds were displaced and destroyed. There was consistent damage for over 20 miles before lifting in DeSoto County, mainly snapped and uprooted trees. A few homes and mobile homes along Highway 3 south of Arkabutla Dam Road had shingles removed or portions of the metal roofing lifted. There were a number of trees snapped and uprooted along Highway 3 and in a wooded area along Woffolk Road. Several power poles were snapped and numerous trees along Arkabutla Dam Road near the Desoto County line. The roof was removed from a garage/carport. A couple of other nearby homes received roof damage. The tornado then moved into DeSoto County. Peak winds in Tunica County were estimated at 110 mph.

A regional tornado outbreak occurred during the late afternoon of Friday, March 31, 2023, and continued into the early morning hours of Saturday, April 1, 2023. This outbreak covered portions of the Ohio Valley, and the Middle and Lower Mississippi Valleys, including a good portion of the Mid-South and stretching into the Tennessee Valley. On Friday, March 31, a surface low was located near La Crosse, WI, with a cold front stretching south into central/southwest Missouri, western Arkansas, and into eastern Texas. Surface temperatures were mainly in the 70s to approaching 80 degrees with surface dewpoints in the lower to middle 60s, yielding Surface-Based CAPE (SBCAPE) values between 1500-2000 J/kg by Friday evening. Favorable upper-level divergence produced by the right entrance region of a 140-kt jet streak at 300 mb provided ample lift to produce strong to severe thunderstorms across the region. Directional and speed shear were impressive with 70-80 knots of Effective Bulk Shear present and 0-1 km Storm Relative Helicity values between 500-600 m2/s2, all more than enough for organized thunderstorms across the area. Discrete supercells started to develop across the Lower Mississippi Valley during the afternoon hours on March 31, 2023, eventually tracking into the Mid-South by late afternoon. The first supercell that developed in the Mid-South produced an EF-3 that caused major damage in Wynne, Arkansas. Tornadic supercells continued to produce significant tornado damage across the Mid-South into the early morning hours of April 1, 2023. The hardest hit areas besides Wynne, Arkansas included Covington, Tennessee, and McNairy County, Tennessee. Overall, 14 tornadoes occurred across the Mid-South along with several reports of wind damage and measured damaging wind speeds. Eighteen people in the Mid-South lost their lives in this outbreak.