EF3 Tornado — Lafayette, Mississippi

2008-02-05 · near College Hill Station, Lafayette, Mississippi

Event narrative

A tornado touched down in the Lafayette County Industrial Park on County Road 166 north of Oxford. The tornado destroyed the Ability Works Incorporated plant and tracked northeast hitting a county owned speculation warehouse and the Caterpillar Plant. The Elliot Lumber Company was also heavily damaged. The tornado then tracked northeast crossing County Road 101 near the County Road 104 intersection. In this area the Harvest Ministries Church, a mobile home and a veterinary clinic were all destroyed. Tree damage was noted as the tornado crossed Highway 7. The tornado continued northeast inflicting heavy damage along County Road 291 where 12 homes and mobile homes were destroyed. The tornado then damaged 2,500 acres of the Holly Springs National Forest before lifting about 2 miles east of Abbeville. A total of about 70 structures were damaged or destroyed. Eleven homes were destroyed and about 15 suffered heavy damage. About 10 mobile homes were destroyed or heavily damaged. Nine commericial structures were destroyed with another 6 suffering heavy damage. The rest of the structures had minor to moderate damage.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.4071, -89.5288)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 82436. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.