EF2 Tornado — Copiah, Mississippi

2016-02-15 · near Wesson, Copiah, Mississippi

Event narrative

The tornado began along Highway 51 just southwest of Wesson. As it tracked northeast, it snapped many hardwood trees. It also caused roof damage to Wesson Attendance Center as well as downing trees that fell on employee cars. As the tornado continued across the southern end of Beauregard, it continued to down trees with one falling on a house. Another house had minor roof damage. As the tornado passed south-southeast of Sand Hill, it became more intense with numerous trees snapped along Beauregard Road. The worst damage occurred on Sand Hill Road, where a home was obliterated. This is where the tornado reached its most intense point and winds reached 130 mph. Another home suffered significant roof damage, a shop was destroyed and many trees were blown down. The tornado tracked northeast, downing numerous trees and causing roof damage to a mobile home on Beauregard Road. The tornado then weakened slightly as it tracked into Simpson County and caused roof damage to two homes on Rockport Road. EF1 type damage was found in the Rockport area, which included snapped trees and some minor roof damage along Highway 27, Camp Lane, and Lower Rockport Road. Minor tree damage occurred as the tornado tracked south of Bridgeport. It reintensified near Bushtown Shivers Road and snapped and uprooted softwood trees as it tracked across Highway 28 south of Pinola. The tornado finally lifted near Tom Coke Road on the eastern side of Pinola. The total path length for this tornado was 30.8 miles. The maximum estimated wind speed was 130mph.

Wider weather episode

Widespread severe weather occurred with a mix of damaging winds, hail and several tornadoes. The focus of the severe weather was across central and southern Mississippi. This event was driven by a potent disturbance that swung across the area during the midday and afternoon hours. As this strong feature dropped into the Lower Mississippi River Valley, a surface low rapidly deepened as it tracked across central Mississippi. The atmospheric response to this was for a rapid increase in winds aloft and higher low level moisture. This combination set the stage for an unstable environment that contained high levels of wind shear which supported and sustained tornado development.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.6960, -90.4023)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 616379. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.