EF2 tornado in Jones County, Mississippi

This tornado touched down along Mason Creek Rd about 6 miles west of Soso. Several trees were snapped and uprooted and some minor roof damage occurred to a few homes. The tornado intensified as it crossed Summerland Road. Here the tornado widened to 500 yds and reached peak intensity, especially within a narrow corridor which lasted about 3/4 of a mile. One well constructed home suffered major damage with half of the roof torn off and other wall sections of that side the house ripped out and thrown into the back yard. Two well built storage buildings were destroyed with the contents thrown into a field. Additionally, a weekly built barn was destroyed with tin thrown along the path. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted in this area with splintered trees within the most intense core. One large tree in this location was uprooted and actually thrown and rolled a small distance. The tornado continued to track just east of north across several more roads, including Highway 28 and 503, uprooting and snapping numerous trees. On the east side of Highway 28, a mobile home was pushed off its foundation and the person inside was injured. The tornado continued to weaken as it crossed Highway 503 and damaged more trees and caused minor damage to several mobile homes and heavily damaged a couple sheds. Maximum winds were around 125 mph.

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.