EF1 tornado in Washington County, Mississippi

Tornado October 9, 2009 · Washington County, Mississippi

EF1

Rating

2.0 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$225K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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

The tornado started along Levee Road and moved north-northeast snapping and downing several trees. As it crossed Highway 1, several more trees were snapped, a couple outbuildings were destroyed, and a couple of mobile homes were damaged. One framed house sustained shingle damage in this area as well. The tornado continued to the north-northeast and moved into a mobile home complex along Key Road. Here the tornado narrowed and reached its maximum intensity with winds around 110 mph. One mobile home was completely destroyed and this is where a fatality occurred. Two other mobile homes were rolled and moderate damage was sustained to several other mobile homes in the complex. In total, 3 mobile homes were destroyed and 16 damaged. A number of trees and several power lines were also blown down along the rest of the path. The tornado dissipated as it crossed Highway 438 where several large limbs were broken off trees.

The wider storm

A potent complex of thunderstorms raced across the northwest portion of the forecast area and brought a line severe storms to the Delta region. Several thunderstorms brought damaging winds to portions of southeast Arkansas, northeast Louisiana, and the Delta portion of Mississippi. A couple of tornadoes also occurred during this event with one causing a fatality in Wayside.

Began near Avon (33.2460, -91.0431).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF0 Bolivar County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 197132. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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