EF3 Tornado — Lee, Mississippi

2014-04-28 · near Bissell, Lee, Mississippi

Event narrative

A tornado touched down near the Pontotoc County line west of Tupelo. The tornado strengthened as it moved into Tupelo reaching a peak intensity along Clayton Avenue and Country Club Road and in the commercial area along North Gloster from Hillcrest Drive to North Green Street. The Joyner Elementary School and Maintenance Shop suffered major damage. Maximum winds were estimated at 150 mph. A woman was killed when her vehicle hydroplaned and hit a tree during the storm. The tornado continued northeast and caused significant damage near Elvis Presley Lake including toppling a 400 foot communication tower. 84 homes were destroyed in Lee County while 169 homes suffered major damage. 351 other homes had minor damage. Six mobile homes were destroyed. Nine mobile homes had major damage while 6 others had minor damage. 17 businesses were destroyed while 9 suffered major damage. The tornado then tracked into Itawamba County.

Wider weather episode

A warm front lifted slowly through North Mississippi during the early evening of April 27, 2014. The airmass south of the warm front was very unstable and a couple of supercells developed along the warm front over Northwest Mississippi with damaging winds and large hail. The warm front lifted north of North Mississippi leaving a very unstable airmass behind. A sutble upper level disturbance triggered thunderstorm developoment during the early morning hours of April 28, 2014. These thunderstorms eventually developed into a mesoscale convective system that tracked across much of Northwest Mississippi with a few reports of large hail and damaging winds. Later that same day an approaching cold front combined with a potent upper level disturbance to trigger supercells across Northeast Mississippi. This resulted in a strong tornado that tracked near Tupelo, Mississippi and several reports of large hail.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.2261, -88.8242)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 515209. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.