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F2 tornado in Bolivar County, Mississippi

Tornado February 24, 2001 · Bolivar County, Mississippi

F2
Rating
37.0 mi
Whole path
440 yd
Path width
$1.5M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Washington County → Bolivar County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This tornado touched down as an F0 tornado in extreme northwest Washington County and moved across a cotton field. The tornado quickly moved into southwest Bolivar County about three miles west of Lamont. The storm moved across the community of Benoit and then about two miles west of Cleveland. The tornado continued on a northeasterly path until dissipating about one mile east of Merigold near the Sunflower County line. The tornado was rated as strong as an F2 in portions of Bolivar County. Damage in the tornado path in Bolivar County included: three houses destroyed, two houses with major damage, five houses with minor damage, and a mobile home destroyed. One small church was destroyed, about two miles east of Benoit. The airplane hangar on a small airstrip near Scott was destroyed, including four small planes inside the hangar. One of the planes was blown at least one half mile from where it had been located in the hangar. At least three businesses sustained serious damage. No serious injuries were reported in the county.

Began near Lamont (33.5333, -91.1333).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5233171. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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