EF4 tornado in Holmes County, Mississippi

The tornado continued northeast into rural southern Holmes County, causing intense tree damage and damaging or destroying a number of rural residences. The damage across this area was in the EF3 range. As the tornado moved by the Franklin Community, in rural Holmes county, it again reached EF4 intensity. It completely destroyed two brick homes and heavily damaged or destroyed a number of other homes. The tornado then crossed Interstate 55, causing significant tree damage and blowing a number of vehicles off the road. As the tornado approached the area just south of Durant and crossed US Highway 51, it narrowed and reached one of its weakest points. One fatality occurred in Holmes County.

During the midday hours of April 24th, an intense supercell thunderstorm produced a violent, long track tornado, which ripped a path across the center of the NWS Jackson, MS forecast area. This tornado touched down just south of I-20, west of Tallulah, in Madison Parish. The tornado intensified quickly and became large as it tracked at a fast pace to the northeast. The tornado moved at roughly 55 mph and was on the ground for 149 miles. The actual time on the ground was 2 hours and 44 minutes. The tornado touched 9 counties/parishes along it's path with the most significant damage occurring in Madison Parish, Warren, Yazoo, Holmes, Attala and Choctaw Counties. A great deal of the damage was in the EF2 and EF3 range with a couple locations of EF4 damage in Yazoo and Holmes Counties. Maximum winds peaked around 170 mph. Overall, 10 fatalities occurred along with 146 injuries. Five fatalities occurred in Choctaw County, 4 in Yazoo County, and 1 in Holmes County.

As we try and put this tornado into perspective for the state of Mississippi, this long track tornado ranks as the 4th longest in Mississippi history at 149 miles. It is the widest known tornado with a maximum width of 1.75 miles. It also ranks as the 9th deadliest tornado with 10 fatalities, making it the most deadly since November 21st 1992. Lastly, this was the first violent tornado (F4 or greater) in the month of April since April 18th, 1978.