EF1 tornado in Madison County, Mississippi

This tornado touched down just southeast of Brownsville along Lorance Road and traced east across northern Hinds County before moving into southwest Madison County. Hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted along the path along with several power lines down. Several roads were blocked by downed trees along with Highway 49 just south of Pocahontas. Maximum winds were around 105 mph with a total path length across Hinds and Madison Counties of 12 miles.

A round of severe thunderstorms, containing tornadoes and damaging straight line winds, occurred Wednesday night, March 25, into early Thursday morning, March 26. These storms developed as a strong upper level disturbance encountered an unstable environment over the lower Mississippi Valley. A squall line of showers and thunderstorms pushed rapidly eastward across the area. One supercell storm formed ahead of the main line and produced a strong tornado which hit the town of Magee.

Eight tornadoes were confirmed from this event. Of the 8 tornadoes, 1 was rated EF3, 1 was rated EF2, 4 were rated EF1, and 2 were rated EF0. Numerous other locations experienced damaging straight line winds in excess of 60-70 mph. The worst damage occurred from a tornado which laid a 17.5 mile long track across Simpson and Smith counties. This storm was rated as EF3 with estimated 150 mph maximum winds near Magee. A second strong tornado, rated EF2 with 125 mph winds, effected Jones County near Soso.