EF1 Tornado — Scott, Mississippi

2023-06-18 · near Independence, Scott, Mississippi

Event narrative

An EF- tornado began along Gray Road in the Cross Roads community of Rankin County where it uprooted trees. It moved east across Rankin-Ferguson Rd. and into southwestern Scott County where it continued to produce minor tree damage along Cooperville Rd. The tornado then made a northeastward turn as the circulation occluded began to produce EF-1 rated tree damage as it crossed Stuart Rd. and S. Water Tank Rd. The tornado lifted near the intersection of MS Highway 13 and Cooperville Rd. Estimated maximum winds in Scott County were 100 mph. The total path length across both counties was 5.77 miles.

Wider weather episode

An upper-level shortwave trough moving east through the Central Plains initiated a few clusters of thunderstorms that spread into Mississippi during the morning of June 18th. With an unstable air mass and strong jet stream over the region, these storms became severe and produced hail and damaging wind through the morning. An additional round of severe storms developed during the evening of the 18th and into the morning of the 19th. This even resulted in a rare June tornado outbreak. The previous record for number of June tornadoes in the state of Mississippi was 7 in 1974. A total of 15 tornadoes occurred across the state from June 18-19, 2023 - making this event a record in its own right. The tornado which occurred near Louin, MS was the first F3 or EF-3 rated tornado in the state since 1957.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.2430, -89.7300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1151480. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.