EF5 Tornado — Monroe, Mississippi

2011-04-27 · near Smithville, Monroe, Mississippi

Event narrative

After lifting for 4 miles, a violent EF-5 tornado touched back down southwest of Smithville and moved northeast. The town of Smithville was almost completely destroyed by the tornado. Homes and businesses were completely wiped off of their foundations. The town hall, post office, police station, and four churches were destroyed. All appliances and plumbing fixtures in the direct path of the tornado were shredded or missing. Granite tombstones were knocked down in the opposite direction of the tornado passage. A ford explorer that was parked a half mile away from the town's water tower was picked up by the tornado and thrown into the top of the water tower. The vehicle was then thrown an additional few hundred feet. In total, 117 structures were destroyed with an additional 50 structures sustaining major damage. Numerous other structures sustained minor damage. Trees were debarked, twisted, and snapped. Power lines were knocked down and the town's water system was destroyed. A lot of the homes that were destroyed were well built, bolted to their foundations and were less than 10 years old. A total of 16 fatalities occurred from the tornado. Thirty-seven injuries occurred as well. The tornado continued northeast after destroying Smithville and crossed into Itawamba County, Mississippi.

Wider weather episode

A stationary front remained draped across Southern Missouri into Western Kentucky from April 24th, 2011 into April 25th, 2011. A very warm and unstable atmosphere was in place across the Mid-South ahead of the front. A low pressure system developed along the front and interacted with the unstable environment which helped produce several rounds of severe storms into the evening of April 26th, 2011. As a result of the severe storms, the front sank south during the early morning hours of April 27th, 2011 as a secondary low pressure system developed along the front. As a result, another round of severe storms fired during the afternoon hours ahead of the low pressure center. Additional severe storms fired along the trailing cold front. Tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds, flash flooding occurred as a result of the severe storms.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.0455, -88.4450)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 303562. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.