F2 tornado — Scott County, Mississippi

F2 tornado in Scott County, Mississippi

Tornado February 21, 1997 · Scott County, Mississippi

Rating

6.0 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

Injury

$1.6M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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.

The wider storm

The tornado touched down 2 miles southwest of the Midway community. As the tornado tracked northeast through the community of Midway, it destroyed three mobile homes and caused significant roof damage to two residences. In addition the Midway Community Center was nearly totally destroyed. Just to the northeast of Midway the tornado uprooted or snapped off 75 to 100 trees and a house was significantly damaged. Another older house was totally destroyed. The tornado continued to move northeast and it lifted in the town of Walnut Grove. Damage in Walnut Grove consisted of several houses having some roof damage and several large trees being uprooted. Just southwest of Walnut Grove, six chicken houses were destroyed. One injury was reported in the Midway community.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5591531. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

F2 tornado in Scott County, Mississippi

The wider storm

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