EF2 tornado in Wilkinson County, Mississippi

This summary covers primarily the Wilkinson County, MS portion of the track. For more information regarding this tornado please refer to WFO Jackson, MS's public information statements. The damage path of a large and significant tornado began between E Sibley Farms Rd and US Hwy 61 in Adams County, MS. Gray Sky/Vexcel and Sentinel-2 high-resolution satellite imagery was heavily leveraged over this rural and inaccessible portion of the track. The tornado produced occasional swaths of defined EF-1 tree damage as it moved into Wilkinson County along the Homochitto River and the damage path became apparently much larger and more multi-vortex in nature with several swaths of damage noted from vortices along and south of the mean path. The sheer amount of tree damage that extended over a half mile south of the mean track made it difficult to differentiate between RFD and subtornadic vortex damage, but the ingestion of this vorticity clearly assisted in rapid intensification of this tornado beyond Possum Corner, MS. An increasingly intense and large swath of downed trees began near Possum Corner Road, south of the Homochitto River. Widespread deforestation became increasingly evident as the tornado tracked east-northeast with several swaths of greater than 80% deforestation rated EF-2 for widespread snapped trunks of pine and mixed forest. The lack of well-built structures in the path of this tornado limited sampling of the peak rating of this tornado. As the tornado approached Doloroso-Rosetta Rd and the Homochitto River, the treefall pattern became cyclonic in orientation and indicative of a potential change of direction which is supported by Climavision V018 data from St. Francisville, LA. Near Old Hwy 61 Road and Perry Town Rd, barn and outbuilding structures were heavily damaged or destroyed. Almost all trees were snapped. High resolution satellite imagery also denoted numerous confluent swaths of damaging feeding into the main track from the south, indicative of subtornadic vortices and potentially a satellite tornado as it neared Old Hwy 61 Road. The tornado reached an initial peak width of 1200 yards here incorporating these feeder vortices. The tornado then continued east causing additional swaths of tree damage north of Perry Town Road before crossing the Homochitto River and back into Adams County. This tornado was continuously on the ground for approximately 81.9 miles over the span of 2 hours and 9 minutes through Adams, Wilkinson, Franklin, and Lincoln counties before concluding southwest of Monticello, MS in Lawrence County. This tornado peaked as an EF-3 east of Garden City, MS as well as near Thayer, MS in NWS Jackson's area of responsibility.

A slowly advancing cold front was positioned beneath strong west-southwesterly flow downstream of a broad upper-level trough with embedded shortwaves. A moist low level layer and strong instability combined with strengthening deep-layer and low-level wind shear to support discrete supercells across southwest and southern Mississippi during the late afternoon and evening. These storms produced large hail and multiple tornadoes over southwest Mississippi, one EF1 and one EF2 tornado.