Strong Wind — Forrest, Mississippi

2014-02-20 · Forrest, Mississippi

Event narrative

Strong southerly winds caused a rotten oak tree to fall on a moving vehicle, which killed the driver. It also caused a power line to fall which started a grass fire, burning the front of a nearby house.

Wider weather episode

During the afternoon of the 20th and into the early morning hours of the 21st, a large part of the central United States experienced severe weather. Across central Mississippi, severe weather was more sporadic, but portions of the area did see the brunt of the strongest activity.

Portions of the area experienced a combination of damaging winds, hail, a few tornadoes and flash flooding. Damaging winds were more common along the US Highway 82 corridor as the line of storms pushed east. Three weak tornadoes occurred, two in Jones County and the other in Marion County. The most impactful severe weather was from flash flooding as three to six inches of rain fell within a swath extending from Brookhaven to Laurel to Hattiesburg to Columbia. Multiple roads flooded as a result, with the worst flooding outside of West Hattiesburg in Lamar County. Water rescues took place in this area, and about 20 homes had significant water in them.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 504826. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.