EF2 tornado in Lee County, Mississippi

This tornado crossed from Union County to Lee County along County Road 2700 around 12:00 a.m. CST on April 1. A poorly anchored home sustained roof removal and collapse of several walls, consistent with a high-end EF1 rating. A church had significant roof damage along County Road 231, and other structures were damaged along County Roads 341 and 2726. In particular, a mobile home/camper trailer was flipped and destroyed in this area. The intensity of the damage picked up along County Road 417, where a vacant double-wide mobile home was swept away and a couple of other homes sustained minor damage. Tree damage here was significant as well. The tornado attained EF2 intensity along County Road 503, where a two-story brick home sustained major roof loss, which began with the uplift of the front porch awning. An adjacent 32x32 two-story garage was swept completely away and destroyed, although it appeared to be poorly anchored. Along County Road 601, another home had total roof loss and several walls collapsed, and extensive tree damage was observed across the road. Further eastward along County Road 601, another home was damaged, and several cedar trees were snapped, consistent with an EF1 rating. Another area of heavier tree damage occurred along County Road 2788 at Highway 45. In addition, the sign at the entrance to an industrial park was damaged. Along Pratts Road, a church and a shop building were damaged, and a few more homes were damaged along the north side of Pratts Road. The tornado weakened significantly after this point, with only lighter, more sporadic tree damage. A couple more homes sustained minor roof damage along Cemetery Road and Highway 370 before the tornado dissipated after crossing County Road 2890. Peak estimated winds in Lee County were 120 mph. Note that part of this tornado occurred before 12:00 am CST on April 1 and much of that data is included in March's Storm Data. The complete narrative for Lee County is included in both March Storm Data and April Storm Data.

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.