F3 tornado in Covington County, Mississippi

Tornado April 14, 1999 · Covington County, Mississippi

Rating

25.5 mi

Whole path

880 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$6.8M

Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 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 strong tornado tracked across northeast Covington County before entering northwest Jones County. Many homes were damaged with several homes receiving major damage. Numerous trees and power lines were blown down and there were many livestock fatalities.

Began near Collins (31.7000, -89.4700).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F0 Sharkey County F0 Holmes County F0 Forrest County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5690028. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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