EF2 Tornado — Lauderdale, Mississippi

2016-02-02 · near Schamberville, Lauderdale, Mississippi

Event narrative

The tornado began southwest of Collinsville near Honeysuckle Drive. It caused damage to numerous homes in this subdivision, mainly to roofs. The tornado then tracked northeast through other subdivisions along Magnolia Road, again causing roof damage that ranged from minor shingle damage to roofs completely destroyed. The tornado also caused extensive damage to a mobile home along Magnolia Drive. As the tornado crossed Highway 494, it caused additional roof damage to a home as well as lifting a mobile home. As the tornado crossed a subdivision along Collinsville Circle, it caused additional roof damage with some extensive. As the tornado tracked near Highway 19, it caused extensive damage to the several buildings of Collinsville Baptist Church. It was here at the church, as well as several of the homes and the mobile home in the subdivisions southwest of Collinsville, that saw the most intense damage and where the tornado was strongest. The tornado continued northeast and snapped or uprooted numerous trees. Minor fence and roof damage occurred at West Lauderdale High School. The tornado continued on into Kemper County. Peak winds were 125 mph. Total path length was 21.4 miles with a max path width of 880 yards(half of a mile).

Wider weather episode

A spring like weather system took shape on Feb 2 and set the stage for a round of severe storms with tornadoes. A large surface low developed across the Eastern Plains and Midwest with an attendant surface front that extended southward into the ArkLaMiss region. While the core of the best lift was over the Midwest, a combination of sufficient lift along with strong wind shear and instability coexisted across portions of East-Central Mississippi. Several supercell thunderstorms developed during the afternoon with a few producing tornadoes. One cell in particular was efficient at producing tornadoes and produced 3 before moving into Alabama where it produced a few more. This cell impacted Newton, Lauderdale, Kemper, and Noxubee Counties with tornadoes, 2 of which were strong and rated EF2.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.4685, -88.8749)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 615098. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.