EF3 Tornado — Lawrence, Mississippi

2020-04-12 · near Tilton, Lawrence, Mississippi

Event narrative

The tornado touched down near Jefferson Rd just east of the intersection with Jack Foil Rd in Walthall County. It quickly strengthened as it moved northeastward through the Hope area where it produced damage consistent with 115 mph winds. It also quickly grew in width and was roughly 1200 yd/0.67 mi wide in Walthall County by the time it approached Hwy 27. As it crossed Hwy 27 it continued to cause significant damage along East Sartinville Rd. The tornado was strongest as it approached James Ratcliff Rd. Two homes on this road were leveled, one being reduced to a slab. Consultation with subject matter experts including both engineers and experts in forensic tornado damage analysis supports raising the maximum intensity to 170 mph based on the house that was reduced to a slab and a large hard wood tree that was uprooted and tossed several feet from where it stood. The increased wind speed makes the tornado an EF-4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. The other home that was leveled suffered damage consistent with a high end EF-3. While all walls were collapsed, there was no evidence of bolts that would have held the sill plates to the foundation. Thus, the wind speed for this particular damage is reduced slightly from the expected. As it continued to move northeastward, it continued snapping every tree near the center of its path. It also caused substantial damage to several small cinder block buildings, tore the roof off of a home and rolled a tied down single-wide manufactured home as it crossed East Sartinville Rd. From there it continued northeastward and tore the entire roof from a brick home just before moving into Lawrence County. It should be noted that from just southwest of James Ratcliff Rd through the remainder of the Walthall Co portion of the track, nearly every tree in the path of the tornado was snapped or uprooted.

The tornado then moved into far southeast Lawrence County, where it began snapping large hardwood branches on JK Givens Road. The tornado started to strengthen as a large swath of broken and uprooted hardwood trees were noted farther along JK Givens Road. As the tornado moved east northeast to Tynes Ainsworth Road, it tossed and completely destroyed a mobile home, causing two fatalities. Concurrently, it also snapped numerous softwood and hardwood trees behind and around the mobile home. The snapping and uprooting of numerous softwood trees continued when it moved northeast across Felix Sartin Road, while also causing some shingles to be removed from a one-story residence. Swaths of snapped hardwood trees and the uproot of trees was noted at Holmes Road, where a few wooden power poles were also snapped. The tornado then trekked into northwest Marion County, causing the snapping of multiple softwood trees just north of Ranch Road. The tornado moved northeast to US Road 587 where it broke a few wooden power poles and continued snapping softwood trees. It continued along its east-northeast path impacting River Road and Cooper Road, and causing large softwood branches to snap and the snapping and uprooting of softwood trees. The uprooting of a few softwood trees was noted when the tornado reached Highway 13, though the amount of uprooted trees was not as impressive from earlier in its track, thus showing a declining in strength. The tornado moved northeast into Jefferson Davis County, resulting in the snapping of a few small softwood tree limbs at Raynes Road. The tornado lifted at Joe Dyess Road, but not before snapping a few small hardwood tree limbs.

The total path length of the tornado was 21.17 miles. Maximum width was 1.1 miles in Lawrence County. Maximum estimated wind speed for the tornado was 170mph, and rated an EF4. However the maximum estimated wind speed in Lawrence County was 140mph, which was rated an EF3.

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 → (31.3331, -90.0823)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 902815. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.