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EF2 tornado in Simpson County, Mississippi

Tornado January 19, 2017 · Simpson County, Mississippi

EF2

Rating

19.3 mi

Whole path

500 yd

Path width

Injury

$2.3M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 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

This tornado touched down just east of Magee along Highway 28 at the intersection of Pine Grove Road. The tornado snapped a few trees here, then quickly grew and intensified. In the first half to 1 mile along Pine Grove Road, numerous trees were snapped and uprooted along with power lines being knocked down and some power poles snapped. Multiple homes had minor to moderate roof damage and most

of these were along the edge of the tornado. However, there were a few that were more directly in the path. These sustained heavier damage with one home completely destroyed. The roof was blown off along with most of the outer wall off. Here peak intensity was reached with winds estimated at 120 mph. Multiple sheds or large

barn type structures were heavily damaged or destroyed in this area as well. High end EF1 damage continued through the remainder of Simpson County where the tornado crossed C Stringer Road, Pine Grove Road again, and County Road 65 before moving into Smith County. Once in Smith County, most of the damage was from downed trees. The heaviest damage occurred as it crossed County Road 65 and County Road 108 where dozens of trees and several power lines were downed. A few

homes also sustained minor roof damage in this area. As the tornado crossed County Road 503, it weakened some but remained at EF1 intensity as it continued to the north-northeast and crossed County Road 114. The remainder of the damage was EF0 intensity as the tornado tracked west of Raleigh before it dissipated at Highway 35,

roughly 5 miles north of town. Maximum estimated winds were 120mph, which occurred in Simpson County. The total path length was 19.2 miles. One injury occurred.

The wider storm

Anomoulsly high moisture content was present across the region as an upper disturbance moved through the area. This resulted in some flash flooding in addition to some severe storms. A dam break occurred, which resulted in some flooding across Franklin County in addition to heavy rain.

Began near Saratoga (31.8672, -89.6690).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 676490. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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