EF1 tornado in Lafayette County, Mississippi

Tornado February 5, 2008 · Lafayette County, Mississippi

EF1

Rating

6.9 mi

Path length

25 yd

Path width

$25K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 25 yards (0.01 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

A tornado touched down just south of Sardis Lake and tracked northeast, south of the southern edge of the lake. The tornado snapped and uprooted many trees. A house and its outbuildings were also damaged along the path. In addition, a few other structures were damaged as well. The path was non-continuous.

The wider storm

A strong low pressure system tracked from Northern Arkansas into Southern Missouri during the evening hours of February 5th, 2008. Supercells developed out ahead of the system during the late afternoon into the early evening. The storms produced tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds. As the supercells moved east during the evening, a cold front moved into North Mississippi. A squall line developed along the front and produced another round of large hail and damaging winds. The front continued to push east into the overnight hours.

Began near Sardis Lake (34.4307, -89.6522).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

7 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF3 Lafayette County EF2 Shelby County 3 dead EF1 Alcorn County EF0 De Soto County EF0 Panola County EF0 Tippah County EF0 Tippah County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 82435. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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