Thunderstorm Wind — Webster, Mississippi

2020-04-12 · near Mathiston, Webster, Mississippi

Event narrative

Trees were blown down.

Wider weather episode

An outbreak of severe weather occurred on Easter Sunday, 2020. This was a multifaceted event with a few different waves of activity, each of which brought their own unique hazardous weather to the residents of the region. This outbreak had a total of 20 tornadoes across the NWS Jackson service area. Of these, two tornadoes were long tracked and in excess of 60 miles. Additionally, the most intense tornado was historically significant as it was the widest tornado in Mississippi history at 2.25 miles and ranks as the third widest nationally. Unfortunately, fatalities occurred across the region, most of which came from the two long track tornadoes. Total fatalities were 14, which were across several counties and almost 100 people were injured. Of the 20 tornadoes, two were rated as EF4, one was an EF3, four were EF2, ten were EF1 and there were three EF0.

The first wave of severe storms moved out of northeast Louisiana as a line of thunderstorms or QLCS. The bowing segment of this line was efficient at producing tornadoes as it moved across northeast Louisiana parishes and through central sections of Mississippi before tracking across Alabama. This part of the QLCS produced 13 tornadoes across the service area with the strongest being three EF2s that occurred west of Pioneer LA, northwest of Yazoo City MS, and north of Macon MS.

The next wave was focused around two large supercell storms where each produced long track tornadoes, and were the phenomena that had the greatest impact across south and southeast Mississippi. The first storm produced two EF4 tornadoes, one of which was on the ground for 68 miles before dissipating. This tornado was up to two miles wide in several locations, with the maximum width at 2.25 miles making it the widest tornado in Mississippi history. On the heels of this supercell, another supercell developed and produced a long track EF3 tornado, which was on the ground for 84 miles.

The third and final wave was associated with the southeast surge of the cold front and driven by the strong lift and winds from the core of the upper level low. This wave was a bit unique as there were not as many thunderstorms associated with the line of strong and damaging winds. However, this line of activity produced widespread wind damage across southeast Arkansas, northeast Louisiana and all of the northern half of Mississippi, including the Mississippi Delta where winds of 70 to 90 mph occurred. While many structures sustained some sort of damage, widespread trees and power lines were blown down during the late evening and early morning hours with the final wave.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.5400, -89.1200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 890200. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.