Home / Mississippi / Perry

EF2 tornado in Perry County, Mississippi

Tornado January 21, 2017 · Perry County, Mississippi

EF2

Rating

31.1 mi

Whole path

600 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$9.5M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado entered extreme NW Perry County, MS from

NE Forrest County 2 miles WNW of Runnelstown, MS and continued to

move NE at 45 to 50 MPH before lifting 5.5 miles NE of Runnelstown.

Two main areas along the path had significant damage, with EF-2

category winds between 111 to 125 mph. One was located on Pumping

Station Road 1.3 miles NW of Runnelstown, and the other 2.7 miles NE

of Runnelstown along Cole Drive. Significant tree damage and

sporadic power lines were downed along the track of the tornado. Damage estimates from property were around $105,000 with tree damage estimated at $55,000.

The wider storm

Multiple rounds of severe weather occurred across inland southwest and south central Alabama, inland southeast Mississippi, and the western Florida Panhandle from January 21st to January 22nd, 2017. The prolonged period of severe weather was the result of a longwave trough axis over the southern plains that was very slow to move east, allowing several strong shortwaves to move across the north central Gulf Coast in the southwest upper level flow. The first round of severe weather on the morning of January 21st resulted in 2 strong tornadoes over the WFO Mobile County Warning area along with straight line wind damage. Large hail was the predominate hazard with the second round of storms on the evening of January 21st. A combination of straight line winds and large hail impacted the region on the morning of January 22nd.

Began near Tallahala (31.3840, -89.1461).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 675634. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.