EF2 tornado in Copiah County, Mississippi

The tornado touched down just west of Galliton Road and tracked northeast across Highway 27, Mitchell Lane and Mitchell Road, into Hinds County where it crossed Haley Road. The tornado then crossed Midway Road at the intersection of Haley Road before crossing I-55 and dissipating just east of Cherry Grove Road. The most intense damage was around Mitchell Lane/Mitchell Road where one wood framed home was pushed off the foundation and destroyed. Another wood framed home was pushed off the foundation. Three to four mobile homes were heavily damaged as they were pushed off their foundations. In Hinds County, a well built home had a large section of the roof removed and carport was blown apart. Major tree damage occurred along the path, especially within the 3 miles of heaviest damage. Maximum sustained winds were estimated at 115 mph. Total path length was 8 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.