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EF0 tornado in Smith County, Mississippi

Tornado June 18, 2023 · Smith County, Mississippi

EF0
Rating
4.5 mi
Path length
800 yd
Path width
$25K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 800 yards (0.45 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A second EF-1 developed a few minutes after the previous tornado in this area. This one touched down along MS Highway 501 where a few tree limbs were blown down. It intensified and damaged more trees as it crossed Sang Bender Road and Smith County Road 529 and turned northward. The tornado dissipated at Smith County Road 504. Estimated maximum wind speeds were 90 mph.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Pineville (32.0856, -89.4027).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

14 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1151485. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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