EF3 Tornado — Mississippi, Arkansas

2023-03-31 · near St Thomas, Mississippi, Arkansas

Event narrative

The tornado that tracked through Wynne, Arkansas eventually moved from through the oxbows of the Mississippi River crossing between Tennessee and Arkansas a couple of times. Significant tree damage along the Mississippi River occurred. As the tornado passed over Corna Lake in Tipton County (the west side of the Mississippi River) and extreme southern Mississippi County, EF- 3 damage was observed. The tornado then crossed the Mississippi River into Tipton County, Tennessee. Peak winds were estimated at 145 mph in Mississippi County.

Wider weather episode

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 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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.4212, -90.0683)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1089131. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.