EF3 Tornado — Carroll, Mississippi

2023-03-24 · near Black Hawk, Carroll, Mississippi

Event narrative

This long track tornado began just southwest of Black Hawk in a wooded area with widespread tree damage, including snapped and uprooted trees. Satellite imagery indicates major tree damage of EF2 intensity. It continued northeast before crossing Highway 430, CR 235, and Highway 17. In this area, numerous residential structures were damaged, including 2 homes that were destroyed, with both losing outer walls and another with collapsed brick on the exterior with the interior slab exposed. Large farming equipment was also blown over on the side. No injuries were reported in this area. The tornado was strongest just northeast of here at EF3 intensity, around 155mph, where Black Hawk Independent Church, Historic Blackhawk School and parsonage were completely destroyed. Both the school and church had stood for nearly 100 years. The church steeple was gone with the bell thrown out and not seen by the survey team. The slab to the church remained intact with a few exterior walls standing. A nearby well building made of cinder block masonry stood mostly untouched outside of minor damage to the roof and doorway. The tornado then continued to the northeast before crossing Highway 17 where widespread tree damage and some structural damage continued. It then continued northeast, just north of Highway 243, before crossing Highway 218 and Nebo Rd, where widespread tree damage occurred. Some areas beyond this were inaccessible due to fallen trees. Satellite imagery indicates potential EF2 to EF3 tree damage in the nearby wooded area. The tornado crossed CR 144, CR 163, CR 211, Good Hope Rd and Spring Lake Rd between Burkhead Lake, Spring Lake and Water Lake. In this area, the tornado was an estimated one half to three quarters of a mile wide and caused EF2 to EF3 tree damage to the forested areas. Some damage was noted to structures along these inaccessible areas. It then crossed Enon Rd, where damage was noted to a home, and Highway 35, where widespread tree damage, major roof, and minor siding damage occurred to a mobile home. One mobile home just north of Highway 35 was thrown off the blocks and into a nearby wooded area some 50 yards away. In this location, 3 fatalities occurred. An 18 wheeler tractor trailer was also blown over on the side. Just to the northeast, satellite imagery indicates a structure had major damage, with the majority of it destroyed. The tornado then crossed CR 278 and CR 61, with minor tree damage, but the majority of the more intense tree damage as viewed within satellite imagery occurred in inaccessible areas just to the north. It then crossed Gum Branch Rd before crossing Interstate 55, where ground surveys and satellite imagery indicated the tornado was nearly a half mile wide. The tornado then crossed Highway 51, Stafford Wells Rd and Highway 407, where major roof damage occurred to residential homes consistent with EF2 intensity. The tornado then crossed Highway 82, where numerous power lines were downed, causing high end EF1 to low end EF2 damage. The tornado then crossed the intersection of Bethlehem Community Rd and Bethlehem Church Rd, where EF2 damage occurred. Three outbuildings were destroyed. A home had major roof damage, and another structure moved off the foundation. The tornado then crossed Hammond Rd, causing major tree damage in the wooded areas. The tornado then caused low end EF2 damage just south of Robinson-Thompson Rd, where an outbuilding was destroyed and a nearby 100 year old home had minor to moderate roof and siding damage but was left standing. The tornado lifted as it crossed Robinson-Thompson Rd. The maximum estimated wind gusts in Carroll County were 165 mph. The total path length was 29.57 miles across the two counties.

Wider weather episode

In the afternoon and evening of the 24th, clusters of strong to severe storms were stretched from southwest to northeast across southeastern Arkansas as robust instability and very strong wind shear served to produce a volatile severe weather environment. To the east in Mississippi, storm activity proved to be more isolated as deep convection struggled develop across the state. With much of the area not being convectively overturned, an area of thunderstorm activity near the Mississippi River near Vicksburg, MS began to become stronger and took advantage of the open warm sector environment, well east of the competitive storm environment to the west that had thus far impeded tornado development. This area of thunderstorm activity quickly consolidated into an organized supercell and produced a family of long track, strong to violent tornadoes from the Mississippi Delta, across central Mississippi, and finally into portions of northeast Mississippi. This cyclical tornado-producing supercell was responsible for the vast majority of severe weather reports from the day and would claim 22 lives across the state. Dozens more were injured, and hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed by these tornadoes. Having wrought widespread destruction across the area, this tornado event by most any measure represents a historic degree of devastation for the state of Mississippi and the region at large.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.3100, -90.0400)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1102164. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.