EF3 Tornado — Lowndes, Mississippi

2008-01-10 · near Kolola Spgs, Lowndes, Mississippi

Event narrative

The tornado started by damaging a home and shed along with some tree and power pole damage. Next, a shed was damaged and a combine harvester that was in the shed was thrown into some trees. After moving through a wooded area, the tornado moved into a neighborhood with new, well-built homes. Around 8 homes were damaged in this neighborhood, with around 5 of them being severely damaged. Roofs were ripped off, walls were collapsed, and a few were even moved off their foundations. The tornado moved through another wooded area and emerged into the Caledonia school complex. It was here that the tornado reached its maximum intensity. The press box and concession stand of the football stadium were destroyed, several medal power poles were bent over, and several trees were knocked down. Numerous vehicles were moved along the ground up to 100 yards, some were flipped over, some had multiple dents from gravel in the parking lot, and numerous windows were broken out. Five school buses were damaged, two of which were flipped over, and one of which was lifted up and ripped apart with the chassis landing in one of the buildings and the frame landing on top of a building. The school gymnasium and a Vocational Tech Building were nearly destroyed with several vehicles including the bus landing inside it. The tornado then left the school complex and moved across the south side of Caledonia. Around 6 homes experienced significant damage here, mainly to the roofs. A church was completely destroyed when the roof was lifted up and collapsed on the building. Another church nearby had minor roof damage. The tornado entered another wooded area causing damage to trees and then emerged along Caledonia-Vernon Road. The tornado moved along the road for several miles. Along this part of the path, numerous single family homes were severely damaged. The roofs were ripped off and the walls were collapsed on several homes. Numerous hard wood trees were snapped, several of which fell on cars and homes. A horse stable was completely destroyed and a high tension medal truss tower was snapped. Further along the road, several mobile homes were completely destroyed. One in particular had the body of the trailer blown downwind and the frame was dragged back along the ground in the opposite direction for around 25 yards. Several cars were moved for a distance around 50 yards at this location as well. The tornado then entered another wooded area causing some tree damage and then weakened before crossing the state line into Lamar County, Alabama. The total path length in Lowndes County was 8.7 miles with an EF3 Enhanced Fujita Scale rating. The total path length for the entire tornado, including each county, was 13.2 miles.

The school complex was occupied by over 2100 students and faculty at the time of the tornado. Yet, the Tornado Warning lead time of 41 minutes allowed the school to place students at the best possible locations. No injuries or fatalities occurred at the school. Also, a day care center with 15 children and faculty was severely damaged, but all 11 had taken cover in an underground storm shelter, so there were no injuries at that location either. In total, there were 15 injuries of which only 3 were considered serious. The 3 serious injuries occurred in the mobile home that was ripped apart with the body moving downwind and the frame in the opposite direction.

Wider weather episode

The second week of January 2008 was quite active with respect to severe weather. Two events impacted the region in a span of 3 days which produced several tornadoes, large hail and wind damage across the area.

On January 10th a vigorous storm system developed over the southern portions of the Midwest and moved northeast towards the Ohio valley. A strong cold front swept across the area during the late morning into the afternoon hours and strong to severe thunderstorms developed out ahead of it. All of the ingredients for tornadic development came into place as warm Gulf moisture pushed northward into the area out ahead of the front. The thunderstorms developed in eastern Louisiana and quickly moved across central Mississippi during the late morning and afternoon hours. As the storms progressed eastward, good instability combined with very strong wind shear for supercell development east of the Mississippi River, with the storms reaching maximum intensity along and east of the interstate 55 corridor.

By far, the most damage was produced by a single supercell thunderstorm that moved from north of Vicksburg through north central and northeast Mississippi during the late morning and early afternoon hours. This single storm produced three strong tornadoes, all of which were rated as EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita tornado damage scale. The most significant damage occurred in Caledonia in Lowndes County, where a school gymnasium was destroyed along with a number of school buses and vehicles in the area.

A second supercell that organized near the Mississippi River in southwest Mississippi before midday tracked from Claiborne County, through the northern Jackson Metropolitan Area, and finally into Noxubee county in northeast Mississippi by mid afternoon. This storm was responsible for 5 different tornado touchdowns along its path, as well as many reports of high winds and hail.

The rest of the area saw a broken line of storms and other supercells ahead of the line. A mix of damaging winds and hail were reported through the rest of the afternoon before the system exited the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.6558, -88.3733)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 75528. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.