EF3 Tornado — Forrest, Mississippi

2013-02-10 · near Hattiesburg, Forrest, Mississippi

Event narrative

The tornado started along Highway 589, where some limbs and small trees were blown down. It became intense rather quickly, producing significant damage as it moved through the West Lake Serene area. The tornado reached its maximum intensity in the area around and just southwest of Oak Grove High School where maximum winds were estimated at 170 mph, which is EF-4 strength. There was a brick home in a subdivision southwest of the high school, just west of old Highway 11, that was completely leveled with all interior and exterior walls down, and a fair amount of large debris was blown downstream. Additionally, very high end timber damage occurred in this location with a number of trees showing debarking and denuding. Several other homes in this subdivision also sustained EF-2 to EF-3 damage. As the tornado crossed old Highway 11, it produced extensive damage on the campus of Oak Grove High School. The field house adjoining the football stadium was destroyed, the baseball stadium and a large metal building adjoining the stadium were essentially destroyed, and several large steel/concrete light standards were snapped at both the baseball and football stadiums. A vehicle was thrown from the parking lot adjoining the baseball stadium, up a small hill and was deposited near the pitching mound in the middle of the baseball field. The main building of the high school also suffered roof damage.

The tornado then moved northeast into the heavily populated areas of Oak Grove and West Hattiesburg, including areas along Lincoln Road Extension, Weathersby Road, Oak Grove Road, and the area just south of Highway 98 along Clark, Lamar and Foxgate Avenues. Numerous homes were destroyed or suffered major damage, and a few homes showed evidence of high end EF-3 damage. Dozens of power poles were snapped and extensive tree damage occurred. Video evidence and ground survey damage appeared to indicate that the tornado was multi-vortex in nature during its Lamar County portion. Just before crossing Interstate 59, it caused significant roof damage to a number of apartment buildings just west of the interstate. In total in Lamar County, emergency management indicated that 51 homes were destroyed and 170 suffered major damage.

The tornado then moved into Forrest County just to the south of Hardy Street damaging numerous homes with the damage in the EF-2 and EF-3 category. It then crossed Hardy Street impacting the southeast corner of the University of Southern Mississippi campus. Numerous buildings were damaged in this area including several campus buildings and a large church. Numerous power poles were blown down in this area and several metal traffic lights were bent or torn off their bases. Damage in this area was also EF-2 and EF-3.

The tornado continued across Highway 49 impacting multiple neighborhoods. Numerous roofs were blown off houses and many trees fell on houses and vehicles. The tornado crossed North Main Street causing significant damage to the Red Cross building, the Girl Scouts building, and bending large metal poles at the Hattiesburg High School athletic fields. The tornado then moved across east 7th Street causing significant damage to several large brick buildings. Damage in the area between north Main Street and east 7th Avenue was in the high end EF-3 range with maximum winds around 160 mph.

The tornado continued into Petal with the most significant damage occurring to an Ace Hardware store on South Main Street. Numerous homes in the vicinity of the hardware store also had roofs torn off and exterior walls collapsed. This damage was also rated high end EF-3 with maximum winds around 160 mph.

The tornado began to weaken as it crossed the Evelyn Gandy Parkway to the northeast of Petal. Damage in this area was mainly EF-1 and EF-2 and consisted of roof damage and snapped trees. The tornado strengthened one last time as it moved through a neighborhood just off Twin Lakes Road. Numerous well built homes experienced EF-2 damage to the roofs in this neighborhood. The tornado weakened as it approached the Perry County line and dissipated a couple of miles into Perry County. Damage at the end of the track was in the EF-0 to EF-1 range.

In Forrest County, emergency management indicated that 133 homes were destroyed and 207 suffered major damage. There were 63 reported injuries.

This is the second violent tornado to impact Lamar and Forrest Counties in recorded history. The other violent tornado was the infamous Purvis tornado on April 24, 1908 that was on the ground for 155 miles and impacted many counties across Mississippi. In total, 143 people were killed by this tornado, including 60 in Lamar County and 4 in Forrest County.

Wider weather episode

An approaching cold front, an unusually high amount of wind shear, and sufficient instability resulted in an outbreak of severe thunderstorms across portions of the lower Deep South, including a violent tornado that moved through Hattiesburg. During the morning hours of February 10th, a line of severe thunderstorms moved into the ArkLaMiss, downing trees and powerlines over portions of southeast Arkansas, northeast Louisiana, and central Mississippi. There was also a barn destroyed near Silver City in Humphreys County. The storms continued to push eastward through the early afternoon, then began to slow down as the cold front began to stall. To the south and east of this line of storms, several supercell thunderstorms developed in the more unstable air mass over south Mississippi, with many of the storms exhibiting strong rotation on radar. Shortly after 4 pm, a tornado developed over southwest Marion County near the Pickwick community and tracked across the county into far western Lamar County before lifting. The same storm which produced this tornado continued eastward across northern Lamar County, producing a large tornado which touched down west of Oak Grove and tracked through the very populated West Hattiesburg area. The tornado continued into Forrest County, tracking through the cities of Hattiesburg and Petal before ending in northwestern Perry County. Considerable damage occurred along the path of this storm, and several people were injured. Scattered severe storms continued to affect the Pine Belt area through the remainder of the evening and into the early morning hours of the 11th, before finally moving out of the area.

In addition to severe weather, flash flooding was a major issue in several areas. From the 10th through the early morning hours of the 11th, the heaviest rainfall occurred over parts of southeast Mississippi, where 5 to 7 inches of rain fell and flash flooding was reported in the area. Rainfall amounts of up to 3 1/2 inches occurred in the Jackson metro area, leading to considerable flash flooding. Quick rises occurred on several streams in the city of Jackson.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.3210, -89.3480)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 433414. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.