EF0 tornado in Copiah County, Mississippi

The tornado touched down again along Dees Road just southwest of Crystal Springs. The tornado downed and damaged several trees along the path. A large tree was uprooted and fell on top of a residence along South Pat Harrison Road. The tornado was also responsible for tearing off the metal roof to a covered walkway at Crystal Springs Middle School. The tornado dissipated shortly after and no other damage was found. Maximum winds were around 82 mph.

A round of severe thunderstorms containing tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds, occurred Tuesday December 9th into Tuesday night across much of the Lower Mississippi River Valley. These storms developed along and ahead of a strong surface cold front and strong upper level disturbance. A surface low developed to our west and tracked eastward increasing the winds and drawing northward deep moisture and instability. The cold front steadily pushed east and clashed with the unstable and highly sheared environment and produced numerous severe thunderstorms as a squall line developed and tracked eastward across the region.

This event produced 16 tornadoes along with many reports of large hail, and wind damage. The majority of the severe weather occurred across central and southern Mississippi. Of the 16 tornadoes, 2 were rated EF2, 8 rated EF1, and 6 rated EF0.

Historically, these 16 tornadoes rank 2nd all time for the number of tornadoes in the month of December. The record is 19 which occurred during the December of 1988. Additionally, this December 9th event has pushed the yearly total of tornadoes in Mississippi to 109. This will set a new record for the number of tornadoes in a year for the state of Mississippi. The previous record of 99 was set in 2005.