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EF2 tornado in Attala County, Mississippi

Tornado April 24, 2010 · Attala County, Mississippi

EF2

Rating

149.0 mi

Whole path

1,920 yd

Path width

Deaths

146

Injuries

$386.0M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Madison Parish, Louisiana → Warren County → Issaquena County → Sharkey County → Yazoo County → Holmes County → Attala County → Choctaw County → Oktibbeha County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,920 yards (1.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 then moved into western Attala County from just east of Durant in Holmes County. The tornado re-intensified somewhat and began causing significant tree damage in rural western Attala County. The tornado continued across Attala County, causing tree and power line damage,and heavily damaging a number of rural residences, including in the community of Hesterville. The tornado continued to the northeast and crossed the Natchez Trace Parkway. Here numerous trees were damaged and thrown across the Parkway. The maximum intensity in Attala County was EF2 with maximum winds around 130 mph.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Boyette (33.0802, -89.8241).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 224553. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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