Thunderstorm Wind — Covington, Mississippi

2023-06-16 · near Seminary, Covington, Mississippi

Event narrative

A line of severe thunderstorms blew down multiple trees in the Seminary area and along US Highway 84 near the Jones County line.

Wider weather episode

During the afternoon and evening of June 15th, an upper-level disturbance triggered a cluster of thunderstorms along a stationary front boundary around the Texas and Oklahoma border. These storms intensified and grew upscale into an intense mesoscale convective system (MCS) as they moved east-southeast along an axis of increased moisture and strong instability that extended toward the Central Gulf Coast. As the MCS moved into western Mississippi with a bow and arrow structure, it exhibited an unusually intense rear-inflow jet with velocities as high as 80 to 100 mph descending to around 1,000 feet above the ground, as viewed by the KDGX NEXRAD site. A wide swath of significant severe wind gusts at the surface caused widespread wind damage including snapped and uprooted trees, downed tree limbs and power lines, and damage to homes and other structures. Surveys of the wind damage indicated that peak wind gusts of 90 to 100 mph likely occurred in the most intense portions of the line. Over 240,000 power outages resulted in portions of the area and many continued for several days following these and other storms that occurred during the middle of June. Two embedded EF-1 tornadoes occurred with the squall line. There was one fatality in Madison County due to the straight line winds, and several other injuries were due to fallen trees across the state. Later in the evening, additional severe thunderstorms produced hail up to the size of grapefruits and caused scattered wind damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.5500, -89.5000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1150924. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.