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F3 tornado in Pontotoc County, Mississippi

Tornado March 1, 1997 · Pontotoc County, Mississippi

Rating

50.0 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

Injuries

$920K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Calhoun County → Lafayette County → Pontotoc County → Union County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 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.

The wider storm

A second tornado developed in Calhoun county near Banner. This tornado also tracked northeast through extreme southeast Lafayette county, through the northwest part of Pontotoc county and through the middle of Union county. While damage occurred in all four counties, the most damage took place in Union county near the town of Martintown. All told 17 persons were injured. Ninety-one homes were damaged with forty-nine of these homes deemed uninhabitable.

Began near Toccopola (34.2700, -89.2300).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5595088. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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