Hail — Warren, Mississippi

2013-03-18 · near Floweree, Warren, Mississippi

Event narrative

A swath of half dollar to grapefruit size hail fell across the northern portion of the county. Significant damage occurred to homes and vehicles as a result of the hail, with windows blown out and vehicle body damage occurring.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level disturbance combined with a strong cold front and associated surface low which crossed the region. A squall line developed across southeast Arkansas and moved quickly across north-central Mississippi during the morning, producing multiple reports of damaging winds and ping-pong to golf ball size hail. There were reports of multiple trees blown down, some roofs blown off buildings and wind gusts of 60-80 mph, with a 77 mph wind gust measured at the Columbus AFB surface observing station. A lone supercell moved across southeast Arkansas just after 1:00 pm and showed many indications of very large hail and strong rotation. This storm gradually began making more of a right turn and continued to dive southeast across northeast Louisiana before moving into Mississippi. This storm produced multiple reports of golf ball to baseball size hail as it continued to dive southeast, shattering windows in homes and vehicles. This storm gradually weakened as another storm began to develop just to the southwest over Morehouse Parish. The storm continued to move southeast with the southern edge of the storm beginning to develop supercell characteristics. This storm became the focus of activity as it began rapidly increasing in intensity and showing signs of producing large hail. Ping pong to tennis ball size hail fell as the storm moved into northern Warren County, breaking numerous windows on vehicles near Redwood. Strong winds blew a tree on a house and caused a minor injury near Redwood. The long-lived supercell continued to move into a favorable environment and produced multiple reports of golf ball to baseball size hail along its path as it moved into the Jackson metro area. The largest hailstone was softball size, or 4.25 inches, which fell in Clinton around 3:50 pm, shattering vehicle windshields. One injury occurred in the Pinehaven community near Clinton when a baseball size hailstone fell onto a resident causing head trauma. This supercell continued to move southeast over the downtown Jackson metro area with numerous reports of golf ball to baseball size hail falling all along the path. The large hail from this supercell caused major roof damage, shattered windshields and caused dents in numerous vehicles and siding damage to multiple mobile homes in the Jackson metro area. The squall line in northeastern Mississippi produced an outflow boundary that moved to the south and southeast which would serve as a focus for additional thunderstorm development ahead of the storm moving into western Mississippi. Thunderstorms began increasing in intensity along the outflow boundary and numerous reports of large hail continued in a swath down into southern Mississippi. Reports of golf ball to baseball size hail were received along a line from Seminary to Natchez and a few golf ball size hailstones fell south of Columbia. As the actual cold front finally made its way through the I-20 corridor and south, additional hail fell during the evening. However, this hail was significantly smaller than what fell earlier, with sizes ranging from nickel to quarter size. The thunderstorms gradually moved out of the Pine Belt region late on the evening of the 18th.

An elementary school in Clinton was damaged bad enough to have to close for the remainder of the school year, and many state and local law enforcement vehicles were heavily damaged or totaled. The amount of damages to the Jackson metro area were staggering and will be remembered for years to come. The hailstone that fell in Clinton was the 3rd largest hailstone in March in Mississippi since 1950, only surpassed by a grapefruit size hailstone that fell on March 30th, 1993 in Puckett, MS and on March 6th, 1996 in Laurel, MS. It was also the 7th largest hailstone to fall in Mississippi for any month, with the largest hailstone of 5.0 inches, or CD/DVD size, falling in Lafayette County on April 10th, 1962.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.5666, -90.8370)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 433329. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.