EF1 Tornado — Bolivar, Mississippi

2011-09-25 · near Kimball Lake, Bolivar, Mississippi

Event narrative

The tornado started out producing a relatively narrow path of tree damage along Township Road. It moved southeast through the Stanton subdivision, heavily damaging four trailer homes and caused minor to moderate damage to several other homes and outbuildings. It continued to move southeast causing tree damage, and widened as it moved into the northwest side of the city of Cleveland. As the tornado moved through the north side of Cleveland, it snapped and uprooted numerous trees, blew the signs out of several restaurants and stores, blew the doors out of the automotive area of a department store, and blew out a wall and a large part of a roof of another commercial building. Several homes suffered shingle damage and power lines were downed. The tornado then turned more eastward, continuing to cause tree damage as it moved along and just north of State Highway 8 east of Cleveland. Additional power lines were downed and a few more homes suffered minor roof damage due to wind or branches falling on them. As the tornado crossed into Sunflower County it moved more southeast again. It snapped several wooden power poles along and just south of Highway 8 along Mallette-Jones Road, along with destroying a greenhouse type structure and causing some roof damage to a frame home. The tornado continued to cause tree damage in a relatively narrow path as it crossed Walker Road, and then dissipated before reaching Lusk Road. Maximum wind speeds were estimated at 100 mph.

Wider weather episode

An anomalous early autumn storm system brought severe weather to portions of the ArkLaMiss. Tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail occurred in the ArkLaMiss Delta during the evening hours of September twenty fifth. The most significant damage occurred in Cleveland, MS where a tornado damaged portions of a subdivision as well as a Walmart and Sears. The line of storms tracked very slowly to the south and east, causing numerous trees to fall across the Delta as well as flash flooding. Another tornado moved over Sunflower County near Drew. An agricultural pivot was flipped over and a few trees and power lines were blown down.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.7933, -90.7814)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 339704. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.