EF2 Tornado — Hancock, Mississippi

2024-04-10 · near Gainesville, Hancock, Mississippi

Event narrative

A tornado exited St Tammany Parish and entered into Hancock County by crossing the Pearl River due west of the Stennis Space Center main gate entrance. A combination of high resolution satellite and radar imagery analysis was used for this survey. Widespread tree damage could be seen on true color satellite imagery growing to a damage path as wide as 300 yards over the Pearl River Basin. Damage to a metal outbuilding was observed after the tornado crossed into Stennis Space Center. This began a very complex interaction of tornado dissipation and genesis around southern Stennis where the damage path of this tornado abruptly ends. The total path length of this tornado, including developing in St Tammany Parish, was 8 miles. Peak intensity was EF-2.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level disturbance, surface low, and cold front produced a line of severe thunderstorms that pushed across Southeast Louisiana and Southern Mississippi in the morning and early afternoon hours of Wednesday, April 10, 2024. The line of severe thunderstorms produced strong straight line winds, extensive flash flooding in the New Orleans metro area and several tornadoes. 12 tornadoes have been confirmed in Mississippi from this event. 3 of them developed in Louisiana and tracked into Mississippi. 5 of those 12 tornadoes touched down and tracked across Stennis Space Center. At one point, as many as 3 of those 5 were on the ground at the same time. These tornadoes have been determined to range in strength from EFU to EF1 after NWS storm surveys and high resolution satellite analysis were conducted.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.3468, -89.6364)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1172752. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.