Jonathan Erdman
Published: April 21, 2020
Sunday's EF4 tornado in southern Mississippi tore a path less than 40 miles from a pair of Easter Sunday EF4 tornadoes in the same area, making it the third violent tornado there in a week.
According to damage survey results released Monday evening by the National Weather Service office near Jackson, Mississippi, Sunday's tornado tore a 54-mile path through parts of five counties, from Walthall County to Perry County.
The tornado quickly intensified and earned an EF4 rating after the NWS examined what was left of a destroyed home in southern Marion County.
NWS meteorologist Thomas Winesett tweeted the home was left "completely unrecognizable." Winesett's photos showed only a slab covered by vinyl flooring and a pile of debris. He added that the home's anchor bolts were also bent.
The only thing keeping this tornado from a higher - EF5 - rating was that the home's debris wasn't swept away from the slab, the NWS wrote in their report.
Another week, another long track violent tormado in Mississippi. Before/after pictures of the worst damage in Marion County. This area was completely unrecognizable compared to google streetview. The house was nearly swept clean off the foundation w/anchor bolts bent. #MSwx
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Heavy damage also happened in the Sandy Hook community of Marion County, including the Hurricane Creek Baptist Church, where the church's steeple was toppled over, a shed was blown several feet away and headstones were knocked over.
This tornado passed less than 10 miles south of downtown Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and was up to 1.25 miles wide.
Three Violent Tornadoes in a Week
The April 19 EF4 tornado was the third EF4 tornado to strike this part of Mississippi in a week.
A pair of EF4 tornadoes carved through a combined 89-mile long swath on Easter Sunday. The paths of this violent Easter Sunday pair were only about 20 to 40 miles farther north than the April 19 EF4 tornado.
The paths of the EF4 tornadoes on Easter Sunday (April 12) and April 19, 2020, tornadoes are shown in red. The Easter Sunday EF3 tornado is shown in orange.
Easter Sunday's first EF4 tornado and the April 19 EF4 tornado both began in Walthall County, only about 18 miles apart.
Incredibly, an EF3 Easter Sunday tornado was less than 10 miles north and west of the paths of both Easter EF4 tornadoes, as you can see in the map above.
These four tornadoes carved a combined 227 miles of destruction through southern Mississippi within seven days.
A Stretch Not Seen in Mississippi Since the Super Outbreak
Violent - EF4 or EF5 - tornadoes made up only about one-half percent of all tornadoes in the U.S. from 1998 through 2017, according to statistics compiled by NOAA. That's an average of only six to seven violent tornadoes a year in the U.S.
Prior to Easter, the last EF4 tornado in Mississippi was on Dec. 23, 2015, in northeast Mississippi and southwest Tennessee, killing 9 and injuring 36.
In fact, Mississippi hadn't seen multiple violent tornadoes in any year - much less one week's time - since the devastating April 2011 Super Outbreak, when an EF4 and two EF5 tornadoes hammered parts of eastern Mississippi on April 27 alone.
According to the Tornado History Project, prior to April 2020, only 33 F/EF4 or 5-rated tornadoes were documented in Mississippi since 1950.
Last year, Mississippi set a state record for tornadoes in a year (115), paced by a record-tying April tornado count (67) with 2011 and a record-setting December count (24).
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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