EF3 Tornado — Hinds, Mississippi

2011-04-15 · near Raymond Williams Arp, Hinds, Mississippi

Event narrative

This tornado began along Airport Road to the southwest of Clinton and moved northeast across Interstate 20, US Highway 80, Interstate 220, and Interstate 55 before lifting near the intersection of Old Canton Road and Pear Orchard Road in southeast Ridgeland.

The most intense damage occurred in Clinton and western Jackson. In these areas, numerous homes and businesses were damaged and destroyed both by the tornado wind and from falling trees, cars were flipped and smashed, thousands of trees were snapped or uprooted, and numerous power lines and power poles were downed or snapped. The basis for the EF-3 rating was houses that were destroyed in neighborhoods just southwest of US Highway 80 and just south of Clinton Blvd in Clinton. The tornado maintained EF-2 and EF-1 strength as it moved through western Jackson. However, once it crossed Interstate 55, the tornado weakened to EF-0 and low end EF-1. Maximum winds were around 140 mph.

Wider weather episode

A significant severe weather event and tornado outbreak affected portions of central Mississippi, southeastern Arkansas, and northeastern Louisiana on April 15th. This event evolved slowly and brought multiple rounds of severe storms to the region between 3 am and 9 pm. A total of 15 tornadoes occurred during this event with 3 being of the strong variety (EF2 or EF3). In addition, numerous reports of damaging straight-line winds occurred as well as instances of large hail. Some of the strongest storms produced hail from golf ball to baseball size. There were two reports of softball sized hail as well, one in Clarke County and the other in Kemper County. In addition to the severe storms, significant flash flooding occurred over northern portions of central Mississippi.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.2908, -90.3754)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 302467. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.