EF2 Tornado — Oktibbeha, Mississippi

2010-11-29 · near Starkville Bryan Arp, Oktibbeha, Mississippi

Event narrative

Initial damage was roof and siding damage to a church along Lynn Lane. The tornado then moved northeast through an area of apartment buildings, causing minor to moderate roof damage to a number of buildings, as well as downing several trees. The tornado then moved into the Pines Trailer Park, where it destroyed a number of mobile homes. Two large mobile homes were rolled and destroyed, and several mobile homes were moved a substantial distance and destroyed. Numerous large pine trees were snapped near the base, with several landing on mobile homes causing major damage. Numerous utility lines were snapped and downed, and a couple of poles were downed. This was the location of maximum damage. The tornado then moved northeast across Louisville Road, causing roof damage to several homes and continuing to snap trees. It moved through another trailer park, blowing out the skirting on several mobile homes and causing minor roof and structural damage to a couple. As the tornado passed through the east side of the Starkville High School complex, it twisted some light standards on the athletic fields and caused some minor fence damage. It then crossed Yellow Jacket Drive, blowing out a porch on a restaurant and causing some minor roof damage. As it crossed Highway 12, it blew down a couple of traffic lights, blew out a business sign, and damaged another porch on a restaurant. The tornado snapped a few trees and caused some shingle damage to a couple of homes on South Montgomery Street, and then dissipated. The tornado was rated EF2 based on the small area of the most intense damage in the Pines Trailer Park; the remainder of the damage was generally EF1 in nature. Maximum winds were around 115 mph.

Wider weather episode

During the evening hours of November 29th and the overnight/early morning period of the 30th, the region was impacted by an outbreak of tornadoes. This outbreak brought 13 tornadoes to the forecast area. This occurred as potent storm system moved out of the Rockies and developed a strong area of low pressure across the Central Plains. This surface low caused a warm front to take shape and quickly lift northward across the forecast during the afternoon of the 29th. Warm and humid conditions pushed north, which led to unstable conditions over the region just ahead of the advancing strong cold front. The wind energy through the atmosphere was strong. The resulting wind shear (change in wind speed or direction with height) was strong and very favorable for rotating storms and supporting tornadoes. As the clash of systems occurred, a mix of supercell thunderstorms developed, along with a broken line of thunderstorms. A handful of these storms utilized the strong wind shear present and produced tornadoes. Overall, 13 tornadoes occurred with 5 being of the strong variety (EF2-EF3). The strongest tornado occurred over northwest Leake and southern Attala Counties. Here, an EF3 moved along a 10 mile path and destroyed numerous mobile homes, 6 people were injured. Four other strong tornadoes occurred and were all rated EF2. Two of these occurred in Yazoo County, one just southwest of Yazoo City and the other in Downtown Yazoo City. Numerous buildings were damaged along with many trees and power lines down. Another EF2 occurred in Starkville where it destroyed multiple mobile homes in town. Fifteen injuries occurred in this area. The final EF2 occurred in Smith County. This tornado had an 11 mile path which started just SW of Raleigh to 6 miles NE of Raleigh. One brick home sustained significant damage along with numerous other buildings and sheds damaged.

This outbreak broke a streak of 3 years when no tornadoes occurred during the month of November across Mississippi. Additionally, the last Fall outbreak of tornadoes occurred on November 24, 2004. Historically, November marks the peak of our 2nd severe weather season and ranks 3rd as the most active month for tornadoes in Mississippi, just a few behind March.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.4400, -88.8299)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 267690. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.