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EF3 Tornado — Simpson, Mississippi

2009-03-26 · near Jaynesville, Simpson, Mississippi

Injuries

$5.0M

Property damage

16.2 mi

Path length

500 yds

Path width

Event narrative

The tornado first touched down just north of Mount Zion Road in Southwest Simpson County and continued northeast through the northwest side of Magee and then across the Smith County line before lifting near South County Road 503. Along the path, 60 homes were damaged or destroyed. A large, well-built church was destroyed. A warehouse was significantly damaged and a radio tower was snapped. Hundreds of hardwood and softwood trees were snapped and uprooted. The highest winds occurred at the church and nearby houses and trees just southwest of Magee along and just off Highway 28. Maximum winds were around 150 mph.

The EF3 rating was in Simpson County while the highest rated damage in Smith County was EF1. Total path length across both counties was near 18 miles.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.7883, -89.8579)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 155941. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.