EF1 tornado in Montgomery County, Mississippi

The tornado started southwest of Sallis near County Road 4106 where a large tree was uprooted and a few small trees were snapped. Two power poles were also snapped. The tornado continued north-northeast to County Highway 4110 where a couple of trees were snapped along with a few power poles. The tornado was rated an EF-2 at this point. The tornado continued north-northeast and a home was pushed off its blocks off of Highway 19. Tin was completely torn off a roof at a church camp off of County Highway 4227. Several power poles were snapped along with hundreds of trees snapped and uprooted. The tornado was rated an EF-2 at this point as well. A mobile home and a shed was destroyed off of Highway 440 as the tornado continued on its north-northeast track. Part of the roof was torn off of a home on Highway 35. The tornado continued to snap and uproot trees until it crossed over into Montgomery County near County Highway 3205. The tornado ended in Montgomery County near Tom Mans Road where a few trees were snapped before it merged with another tornadic thunderstorm that moved into Poplar Creek. Maximum winds were around 125 mph. Total path length across Attala and Montgomery Counties was 23 miles.

A historic outbreak of tornadoes across the Ark-La-Miss began late on Tuesday, April 26th continuing into the early morning hours of Wednesday, April 27th. The event ramped up again during the early afternoon of April 27th continuing into the early evening. The activity on April 26th began as supercell thunderstorms producing large hail and tornadoes across northeast Texas and portions of Arkansas before evolving into a squall line as it moved east. This line of storms had multiple stages of evolution and moved across several states before dissipating. This line was very efficient in producing wind damage as it pushed east. More impressively, this line was responsible for 23 of the 32 tornadoes that occurred across the Ark-La-Miss during this event. Of those 23, 12 were rated as strong (EF2, EF3) tornadoes and had fairly long path lengths.

The atmosphere reloaded quickly Wednesday morning and became increasingly favorable for more severe storms by early afternoon. The driving force for the activity Wednesday afternoon was a potent shortwave and deep surface low that intensified during the day. The winds in the mid levels of the atmosphere increased to 80-100 mph helping to deepen the surface low further, which in turn caused the low level winds to become stronger. The wind shear caused by the turning of the winds from south near the surface to westerly aloft was at rare levels for late April over the Deep South. In addition, an abundance of low level moisture returned to the area in wake of the morning complex. Sunny skies during the morning interacted with the high levels of low level moisture eventually leading to a very unstable air mass by early afternoon. The result was an extremely rare mix of instability and wind shear. These ingredients, along with lift from a potent upper disturbance, ultimately led to the historic tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011.

By early afternoon, several discrete supercell thunderstorms were developing across central and eastern Mississippi. It did not take long for these storms to take on 'classic' supercell structures and begin producing tornadoes. The first tornado of the afternoon started in Neshoba County on the north side of Philadelphia. This tornado ended up producing EF-5 damage and tracked for 29 miles across Neshoba, Kemper, Winston and Noxubee Counties. Through the rest of the afteroon multiple tornadoes developed, stemming from multiple supercell storms. Nearly all of the storms produced tornadoes, with many of them long track and significant. The other violent tornado to impact the Jackson, MS forecast area occurred across Smith, Jasper, and Clarke Counties. This tornado continued into Alabama and had a total path length of 124 miles across both states.

Loss of life during this historic event was staggering. Unfortunately, 321 people lost their lives making this the second deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history. The March 18, 1925 Tri-State tornado outbreak is first with 747 fatalities. This marks the first EF-5 tornado in Mississippi since the Candlestick Park tornado on May 3, 1966, and this marks the first time since statistics have been kept that two EF-5 tornadoes have been recorded on the same day in Mississippi, with the tornado in Smithville also rated as EF-5. Incredibly, 4 tornadoes had path lengths over 100 miles across the southern states during this event, and all 4 of these were rated either EF-4 or EF-5.