EF0 Tornado — Smith, Mississippi

2023-06-18 · near Raleigh, Smith, Mississippi

Event narrative

An EF-0 tornado touched down along MS Highway 18 just west of Raleigh and dissipated at Highway 35 a few miles north of Raleigh. It broke tree limbs and blew down a couple of trees along its path. Estimated maximum wind speeds were 80 mph.

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 → (32.0465, -89.5630)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1151483. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.