Thunderstorm Wind — Jefferson Davis, Mississippi

2024-05-13 · near Oak Vale, Jefferson Davis, Mississippi

Event narrative

A swath of significant wind damage began in the Oak Vale community in Jefferson Davis County, moved southeast through the Society Hill community, and continued into northern Marion County where it impacted the Bunker Hill and Good Hope communities. This swath was extensive and had a sizable area of estimated 70 to 85 mph winds. More intense winds were embedded and impacted areas at Society Hill (105 mph peak winds), a sizeable area around Bunker Hill (110 mph peak winds), and then the Good Hope community (95 mph peak winds). Timber damage was extensive with potentially tens of thousands of trees uprooted, snapped, or damaged to a decent degree. Numerous power lines and poles were blown down. Roughly two dozen homes suffered major to minor damage across the swath with these being damaged from a combination of trees downed on them or strictly from the wind. The hardest hit area was around Bunker Hill. The area from the reservoir through Gross-Bunker Hill Road, Pope Road, MS Highway 35 to Williamsburg Road experienced the peak portion of the swath of 100 to 110 mph winds. A section along Pope Road and Highway 35 was enhanced by less friction as these winds moved over a large open area. The roof was removed from a large barn structure, and substantial roof damage occurred to the home next door. Tree damage was extensive. Additional drone aerial imagery confirmed that damage along Highway 13 at Wilburn Dyess Road in the Society Hill community was part of an overall downburst swath, but it was an area of more concentrated high end winds. The aerial perspective showed a uniform tree fall pattern to the WSW or SW. The swath was ranged from 2 to 3 miles wide and covered a length of roughly 15 miles across the two counties.

Wider weather episode

Severe thunderstorms moved across the state of Mississippi and produced damaging wind gusts, a few brief tornadoes, and heavy rainfall. Several swaths of wind produced significant damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.4600, -89.9600)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1194646. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.