EF1 tornado in Lincoln County, Mississippi

The tornado started by downing trees along Cole Drive west of the Ruth community. The tornado quickly intensified and produced its first area of damage with winds estimated near 100 mph in Ruth. The awning of a gas station was destroyed, the volunteer fire department building had the back wall blown out, a church had the steeple blown off along with extensive shingle damage, and a number of homes suffered roof damage due to trees falling on them or due to direct minor roof damage. The tornado continued to move east across southeast Lincoln county and into southwest Lawrence county to the northwest and north of Jayess, causing tree damage. A few trees here fell on homes, and one fell on an RV vehicle, completely destroying it. After appearing to weaken northeast of Jayess, the tornado restrengthened after moving east of Mississippi Highway 27. The tornado again caused damaging indicative of winds of 100 mph along Tom Sistrunk Road. Numerous large trees were snapped and uprooted, and several homes had minor to moderate roof damage. The tornado then weakened as it moved east, dissipating just before reaching the border between Lawrence and Marion counties. Maximum winds were around 100 mph. Total path length across Lincoln and Lawrence Counties was 17 miles.

While the damage pattern associated with this tornado had clear tornadic indications with a convergent damage pattern, there was also damage indicative of straight line winds to the west and north of the tornado, primarily from west to north of Ruth. A number of trees were downed in this area, some on power lines.

A powerful storm system took shape across the central United States and clashed with a warm and unstable airmass. An extensive and intense squall line resulted which quickly pushed eastward across the eastern half of the country. Overall, this system produced a large severe weather outbreak and brought widespread wind damage to multiple states across the south, mid south, and southeast United States. Nearly 1500 reports of severe weather were reported, across 15 states, with the vast majority being damaging winds. Wind damage was not the only severe weather event type, large hail and tornadoes were also part of the mix. In terms of total events (severe weather reports), this outbreak is one of the largest in the United States.

Across the National Weather Service Jackson forecast area, numerous reports of down trees and power lines were reported along with multiple reports of damaged structures. These structures were damaged by either fallen trees or intense winds. Survey teams found 5 tornadoes across the area, two of which were rated EF2. The first strong tornado moved into northwest Catahoula Parish from LaSalle Parish. The other strong tornado occurred across Tensas Parish and tracked to the MS River, crossed the river and dissipated in far northwest Claiborne County. The other three tornadoes were rated EF1. One of these occurred just north of Utica, in Hinds County, another tracked across northern Simpson County near Braxton, and the other across southeast Lincoln and southern Lawrence Counties.