EF1 tornado in Hinds County, Mississippi

This EF-1 tornado began in a wooded area along the Big Black River in far southeastern Warren County, tracking northeastward across the Big Black River and into Hinds County just south of the Mississippi Highway 27 bridge where some small trees and large tree branches were snapped. The tornado continued across rural western Hinds County producing EF-0 damage to small trees. It strengthened to high end EF-1 status as it approached Edwards, snapping utility poles and causing damage at a substation near Mt Moriah Road and Chicester Road. As the storm moved across the south side of Edwards, numerous trees were snapped along Staple Street, Ashcot Circle, Wither Street, and Royal Street. Several homes in this area sustained damage, some significant, due to falling trees. In addition, numerous homes sustained roof damage due to wind. The tornado tracked over the eastern side of downtown Edwards, causing additional roof and tree damage on Cemetery Road and along the I-20 frontage roads where it crossed east of the Edwards interchange. It then crossed Mississippi 22 near Gaddis Road and Bradley Road, Good Hope Road and Farr Road near Champion Hill, and finally lifted as it crossed Martin Road where it produced minor tree damage. Maximum winds were 110 mph. Total path length was 22.68 miles.

A well defined, positively-tilted trough existed across the Southern Plains and at the surface, a cold front was progressing across Arkansas and Louisiana, while an intensifying area of low pressure propagated northeast along the boundary. Discrete supercells developed in the morning on December 16 and moved northeast, spawning multiple strong tornadoes over northeast Louisiana and south Mississippi. These storms produced a total of 10 tornadoes.