EF1 Tornado — Lauderdale, Mississippi

2024-12-28 · near Topton, Lauderdale, Mississippi

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado touched down near the intersection of Lizelia Road and Ponta Hills Road and uprooted or snapped trees as it moved north-northeast. As it approached the Meridian Naval Air Station, the tornado took a more northeastward movement and crossed the central portion of the Air Station. Several buildings were damaged, including one which suffered extensive roof damage, partial collapse of the brick veneer, broken windows, and subsequent interior water damage. The four fire station doors were blown in, and some vehicles, including 4 fueling trucks were damaged. The metal shed at the fueling area was destroyed and thrown along with large sections of several large fences that had been taken out. Ten large airplane canopies were damaged as well. The tornado turned more to the east as it moved off the Air Station and dissipated after it crossed Clarke Road. The maximum wind speed was 105 mph.

Wider weather episode

On December 28th, an outbreak of severe weather took place. Initially, a few isolated supercells storms developed and produced some tornadoes. As this occurred, a line of storms also developed and eventually pushed eastward across our region. Widespread damaging winds occurred with the line along with numerous tornadoes. This particular convective system was extremely efficient at producing tornadoes. This resulted in a record number of tornadoes for the month of December. The total across our forecast area was 43. The previous December record was 24 back in 2022.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.4889, -88.6407)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1227912. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.