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EF1 tornado in Simpson County, Mississippi

Tornado March 3, 2008 · Simpson County, Mississippi

EF1
Rating
0.4 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
$5K
Damage as recorded
$30K
Crop damage
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 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

This tornado touched down along Peacock Road, a few miles south of Mendenhall. Numerous pine trees were snapped and uprooted. Minor damage occurred to the roof of one home. Maximum winds were 100 mph.

The wider storm

A strong upper level system and evolving surface low moved across the region late on March 3rd. These features combined to bring a potent weather system to the area and a healthy round of severe thunderstorms from late afternoon through around midnight. It was a line of thunderstorms which brought most of the severe weather, but a few supercells did occur just ahead of the line. Ten tornadoes occurred, two of which were strong (EF-2), along with a good deal of wind damage as the line pushed east across Mississippi.

Began near Mendenhall (31.9235, -89.8879).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Sharkey CountyEF2 Clarke CountyEF1 Simpson CountyEF1 Marion CountyEF1 Scott CountyEF1 Scott CountyEF1 Forrest CountyEF0 Sharkey CountyEF0 Kemper County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 88212. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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