EF0 Tornado — Jones, Mississippi

2014-04-07 · near Gitano, Jones, Mississippi

Event narrative

This tornado touched down just to the west of Sunset-Williamsburg Rd. Several trees were snapped at this location. The tornado moved northeast where it crossed Sunset Rd and Rock Hill Rd. Snapped & uprooted trees were the main damage. As the tornado neared and crossed Highway 49, the intensity increased to a high end EF-1.

Multiple power lines were downed along with numerous trees, two homes had minor damage along Rock Hill Rd. A home had a portion of the roof removed along Highway 49. As the tornado crossed Byrd Town Rd, more high end tree damage occurred with some minor damage to a home and a couple mobile homes. Several sheds and carports were destroyed here as well. The tornado increased in intensity to a low end EF-2 as it crossed George Speed Rd. Here significant tree damage was noted with hundreds of snapped or uprooted pines and hardwoods. A few homes had minor damage as they were on the edges of the tornadic circulation. The tornado weakened some as it moved just north of Jones Chapel Rd and across Highway 532. The tornado increased and reached peak intensity, EF-2 (125 mph), as it crossed Vester Pickering Rd. Three mobile homes were destroyed with one well-built brick home having the roof entirely removed. Heavy tree damaged was noted here with power poles and power lines down. Just to the north of Hot Coffee, a large church was heavily damaged with part of the roof removed and some outer brick fallen off the outer wall. Five other brick buildings had minor/major roof damage along with the windows blown out. Dozens of trees were snapped and uprooted here and along Highway 35.

The tornado continued to the northeast toward the Leaf River where more trees were snapped and downed. The tornado dissipated just inside Jones County where some trees were damaged. Total path length was 16.5 miles. Maximum winds were around 125 mph.

Wider weather episode

A cold front moved through the region on April 4th and stalled along the northern Gulf Coast. Over the next several days, moisture increased over the region ahead of a strong upper level system. Beginning in the early morning hours of the 6th, bands of showers and thunderstorms moved north across the ArkLaMiss region. This continued through the day as heavy rain fell over some already saturated ground. During the late afternoon and evening hours of the 6th, the stalled front started to move slowly north as a warm front. This occurred as a surface low developed across the Texas coast and began to track northeast. This was able to bring mid 60 degree dew points into the region to just north of the Highway 84 corridor and allow for storms to become more surface based which brought a threat for damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes.

The most significant impact from this weather system was from the prolonged heavy rainfall. Rainfall totals ranged from a widespread 2-4 inches with a few swaths of 5 to 7 inches. This sort of rainfall produced many instances of flash flooding along with significant river flooding after the rains ended. Multiple roads were washed out in some locations from the copious amounts of rain that fell along with many other roads covered with water. The Strong River at D'Lo, in Simpson County, crested at a record flood stage of 34.3 feet. Due to its close proximity to U.S. Highway 49, flood waters crept across the road and forced closure for a few days. Tallahala Creek at Laurel rose to major flood stage, cresting at 19.36 feet on April 8th.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.7859, -89.4015)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 516926. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.