EF2 tornado in Rankin County, Mississippi

This tornado touched down just northwest of Star along Highway 49 and tracked along Muse Road for a mile. The tornado caused extensive damage to the Star baseball field. It knocked down the light fixtures off the poles. Metal fences were blown down and the dugout structure was destroyed. Damage to a couple of cars in the area also occurred due to fallen trees. The tornado damaged a residence with an 8 foot hole to the roof and completely destroyed a well constructed metal outbuilding that housed a small personal airplane. This is where the tornado was at peak intensity with winds estimated to be around 112 mph and a rating of EF2. Most of the other damage along the path was uprooted and snapped trees. The top to a small well house was also toppled.

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.