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EF1 tornado in Madison County, Mississippi

Tornado March 25, 2009 · Madison County, Mississippi

EF1

Rating

4.9 mi

Path length

250 yd

Path width

$300K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Numerous large hardwood and softwood trees were snapped and uprooted along the path. Several homes had minor to moderate damage, mostly to roofs. Maximum winds were around 110 mph.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Mansdale (32.5095, -90.1827).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

7 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF3 Simpson County EF2 Jones County EF1 Lauderdale County EF1 Hinds County EF1 Jasper County EF0 Hinds County EF0 Madison County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 155806. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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