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EF1 tornado in Jefferson County, Mississippi

Tornado May 2, 2021 · Jefferson County, Mississippi

EF1
Rating
14.0 mi
Whole path
500 yd
Path width
$30K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Jefferson County → Claiborne County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 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

An EF-1 tornado touched down on the northwest side of Lorman near McDonald Road and the Natchez Trace Parkway, where several tree tops and large branches were snapped off and a pine tree was uprooted. The tornado continued east across US Highway 61 into heavily forested areas north of Red Lick Road and south of Patton Road. It then tracked northeast across a network of winding roads through the Tillman and Pattison areas including Woodvine Road, Warners Road, and Pattison - Tillman Road. Along this part of the track, damage consisted of several uprooted or snapped trees and a consistent pattern of downed small and large tree limbs. The tornado appeared to weaken as it approached and moved along the southeast side of Pattison, where a few large tree limbs were downed and a small tree was uprooted along Saw Mill Road at Barland Creek. The tornado dissipated in the forested areas north and west of the bend in Saw Mill Road. Total path length was 14.03 miles across the two counties. The maximum estimated wind speed was 105 mph. The maximum width through the track was 650 yards.

The wider storm

An upper-level shortwave trough moved from East Texas across Arkansas during the afternoon of May 2nd. At the surface, a warm front associated with the system developed and lifted north across Mississippi. Severe thunderstorms developed along and south of the warm front through the afternoon and evening, producing several tornadoes and scattered wind damage extending from the southwestern and west-central Mississippi toward north-central and northeastern portions of the state.

Began near Brasfield (31.8345, -91.0644).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 959697. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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