TornadoLookup

Home / Mississippi / Jefferson

F3 tornado in Jefferson County, Mississippi

Tornado November 23, 2004 – November 24, 2004 · Jefferson County, Mississippi

F3
Rating
18.0 mi
Path length
600 yd
Path width
$300K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F3 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F3 meant severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned; the scale paired it with winds of 158–206 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 just west of the Natchez Trace, 8 miles west of Fayette and tracked northeast for 18 miles across Jefferson county. Between the Natchez Trace and highway 553 the tornado was in its early stages and produced F0 damage by downing several trees. Between highway 553 and US Highway 61 this tornado began to intensify and downed or snapped hundreds of trees. One mobile home and two sheds sustained minor damage as they were located on the northern edge of the circulation. As it approached US Highway 61, it moved through an open field and was at its widest point, 600 yards. Here a string of seven power poles were snapped and a large tractor shed was destroyed. The frame of the shed was made of large I-beams. These beams were snapped from their base as the shed was blown away. In the area around US Highway 61 four homes sustained major roof damage. On the east side of the highway one of these homes lost almost the entire roof and had every window blown out. For a three mile stretch between US Highway 61 and highway 552 the tornado was at its strongest and produced F3 damage. Every tree in the forest, along this stretch, was uprooted or snapped. The tornado began to weaken after passing across highway 552 and dissipated just on the other side of the Claiborne county line.

Began near Fayette (31.7167, -91.2000).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

15 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5425217. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.