2010 Yazoo City tornado

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2010 Yazoo City tornado
Top: Doppler radar imagery of the tornado near peak intensity with a debris ball evident on reflectivity
Bottom: The town sign for Yazoo City, Mississippi, along with the ruins of a large brick building.
Meteorological history
FormedApril 24, 2011, 10:09 p.m. CDT
DissipatedApril 24, 2010, 12:53 p.m. CDT (UTC–05:00)
Duration2 hours, 44 minutes
EF4 tornado
on the Enhanced Fujita scale
Highest winds170 mph (270 km/h)
Overall effects
Fatalities10
Injuries146
Damage$364 million (2010 USD)
Areas affectedMadison Parish, Warren County, Sharkey County, Yazoo County (specifically Yazoo City), Holmes County, Attala County, Choctaw County, Oktibbeha County
Part of the Tornado outbreak of April 22-25, 2010 and Tornadoes of 2010

During the evening hours of April 24, a massive and long tracked tornado struck the southern side of Yazoo City, Ebenezer, Durant, and Hesterville in Mississippi, causing 10 fatalities and injuring a further 146 people during its 149 miles path. It was the strongest and deadliest tornado of the Tornado outbreak of April 22–25, 2010 and the deadliest tornado of the year.

This long-track and devastating tornado became the fourth longest in Mississippi history and it used to be the largest tornado in the state history, alongside that, the Yazoo City EF4 is the first violent tornado to happen in Mississippi during the month of April since 1978[1][2]

The intense supercell would drop the tornado few miles east of Tallulah and almost immediately intensified to an EF3 and it maintained that intensity before crossing over the Mississippi River where it weakened to an EF2, it would stregthen back to an intense EF3 again as it crosses into Yazoo County. The tornado would stregthen to low-end EF4 as it passes south of Yazoo City, soon it would weaken down to high-end EF3 and maintained that intensity until it stregthen back up to low-end EF4 few miles southwest of Durant before quickly weakening down to an EF1 before coming back up to EF2, it would then rapidly intensify to an EF3 near the town Weir, it would start to gradually weaken before completely dissipating north of Sturgis.

Meteorological Setup

High risk for severe weather being issued by the Storm Prediction Center

On April 24, an energetic upper level storm system strengthened as it moved from Texas to the southern Great Lakes Region. A cold front moved eastward across the middle and lower Mississippi River Valley before heading into the Ohio River Valley and stretched into the Mid-South portion of the United States. In front of the cold front, a warm, moist and unstable air mass spread northward from the lower Mississippi River Valley and northern Gulf Coast States into the middle Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys. There were already thunderstorms that had formed during the morning hours and the conditions would only become more numerous throughout the day. This set the stage for a significant severe weather outbreak with the potential for strong and violent tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds.[3] As a result, the Storm Prediction Center issued a rare high risk of severe weather for portions of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky, the first such issuance since April 26, 2009.[4] Four "particularly dangerous situation" tornado watches were issued that day for areas of Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama.[5][6][7][8]

Tornado Summary

Louisiana

The tornado would touch down in Madison Parish, few miles west of Tallulah, it would pass through I-20, where it would flip over a tractor trailer, injuring the truck driver who was driving, at the same time it would destroy a couple of high tension truss towers near the south end of I-20 as the tornado continue to quickly travel northeast. Then it would quickly intensify to a mid range EF3 as it crosses Highway 80 and Willow Bayou road, where numerous homes were heavily damaged and down multiple power lines as well as snapped or uprooted dozens of trees.

Crossing Highway 65 and Levee Rd, the tornado passes just south of the community of Omega, where a chemical plant was completely destroyed, a few rail cars were pushed off the track and a crane was completely crumpled by the tornado along with severe damages to storage tanks, soon the tornado would cross the Mississippi River into Mississippi.

Major damage done to a brick building

Mississippi

As it entered Warren County, it would weaken back down to a high-end EF2 where multiple homes and few mobile homes around the Eagle Lake area were either damaged or destroyed, alongside with dozens of trees that were snapped and uprooted and down power lines as it crosses the lake, briefly entering back into Louisiana before re-entering back into Mississippi as it moves into Issaquena County.[9] The tornado would remain at high-end EF2 but it also continued to expand in size, snapping and uprooting a prolific amount of trees in the Delta National Forest and destroying an abandonded building as it crosses Highway 61 south of Valley Park, Mississippi, cutting through the extreme southeastern portion of Sharkey County.[10][11]

After leaving Sharkey County, the tornado would start to intensify again as well as rapidly grow in size as it enters Yazoo County as it gets shrouded in rain, the tornado would cause more signanifcant damages to homes and infrastrucre as it crosses Highway 3 near Sataria, major damages would be spotted around here as homes were either heavily damaged or completely destroyed, intense tree damages also occurred here, at around the same time a debris ball was evident on doppler radar as well as an intense velocity couplet, these signature would lead to an issuance of a tornado emergency for Yazoo City at 12:11 p.m CDT .[12] As it reaches the intersection between Highway 49 and Highway 16, it would reach it's peak width of 1.75 miles (3080 yards), becoming the largest tornado in Mississippi state, until the record was beaten by the Bassfield tornado almost ten years later,[13] this is also where it would reach it's peak intensity as a low end EF4 tornado with windspeeds up to 170 mph (274 km/h) as several homes and businesses were levelled, mobile homes were obliterated and more homes were either damaged or destroyed, killing 4 and injuring 53 others as it leaves Yazoo County and onto Holmes County.[1]

A Church completely destroyed by the tornado

Entering Holmes County, it would weaken down to an EF3 and narrow down slightly to 1.47 miles (2600 yards) as traverse through the rural areas of Mississippi, causing more tree damage as more homes are either damaged or destroyed, as it nears Durant, it would re-strengthen back to an EF4 as two brick homes were completely levelled while homes nearby were heavily damaged, a mobile home was completely destroyed, killing a 70-year-old man inside of it, the tornado would cross I-55, sweeping many motor vehichles off the highway before the tornado would hit the southern side of Durant as the tornado would quickly weaken back to an EF2 before the tornado would exit Holmes County.[14] The tornado would then entered Attala County where it weakens down to an EF1 before it would strengthen back up to a strong EF2 as it continues to cause strong tree damage and signanificant damages to homes in the rural areas of the county before it moved on into Choctaw County where it rapidly intensified to a high end EF3 as some well-built brick homes were nearly levelled and a Crossroads Grocery was destroyed, as the tornado crossed Pisgah Rd, five people would be killed along here as multiple mobile homes were completely destroyed alongside homes with conventional foundations. Afterwards the tornado would weaken down to an EF2 as it cause more heavy tree damages occurred, the tornado would travel an extra three miles through Oktibbeha County as a weak EF1, and after being on the ground for nearly 150 miles and almost 3 hours, the tornado would dissipate 5.5 miles north of Sturgis, Mississippi.[15][16][17][18]

Impacts & Aftermath

Linemans working on restoring power

Overall the tornado would caused $37 million in damages in Louisiana[19] In total, the tornado would damage 849 homes, businesses and agriculture and 283 of them were completely destroyed.[20] The Central Mississippi chapter would open a shelter with supplies as well as emergancy response vehicles, other places like L.T. Miller Community Center in Yazoo City, opened up as shelters.[21] Months after the tornado happened, most of the debris has been cleared out and new powerlines were installed.[22] Govenor Haley Barbour visited parts of Yazoo County that got devastated and told the Associated Press there was "utter obliteration" in parts of the county that got hit.[15]

“The effects of these storms have left many Mississippians with destroyed businesses and withouthomes,”- Haley Barbour

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "EF4 Yazoo County: Storm Events Database - Event Details | National Centers for Environmental Information". www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  2. ^ Ledger, The Clarion. "EF4 tornado on Apr. 24, 2010 10:53 AM CDT". The Clarion Ledger. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  3. ^ Craig, Kevin (2010-04-24). "Tornadoes Hit The Southern States". WXMI. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  4. ^ Hetrick, Michael (2010-04-24). "Powerful storms bring high winds, damage to East Texas". KLTV. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  5. ^ "Storm Prediction Center PDS Tornado Watch 91". Storm Prediction Center. 2010-04-24. Archived from the original on 28 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  6. ^ "Storm Prediction Center PDS Tornado Watch 93". Storm Prediction Center. 2010-04-24. Archived from the original on 27 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  7. ^ "Storm Prediction Center PDS Tornado Watch 94". Storm Prediction Center. 2010-04-24. Archived from the original on 28 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  8. ^ "Storm Prediction Center PDS Tornado Watch 96". Storm Prediction Center. 2010-04-24. Archived from the original on 28 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  9. ^ "EF2: Storm Events Database - Event Details | National Centers for Environmental Information". www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  10. ^ "EF2 Issaquena County: Storm Events Database - Event Details | National Centers for Environmental Information". www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  11. ^ "EF2 Sharkey County: Storm Events Database - Event Details | National Centers for Environmental Information". www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  12. ^ akrherz@iastate.edu, daryl herzmann. "IEM :: Valid Time Event Code (VTEC) App". mesonet.agron.iastate.edu. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  13. ^ https://x.com/NWSJacksonMS/status/1250905697056776192. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ^ "Storm Events Database - Event Details | National Centers for Environmental Information". www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  15. ^ a b "10 die in Mississippi as tornadoes rip state | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette". www.nwaonline.com. 2010-04-25. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  16. ^ "Storm Events Database - Event Details | National Centers for Environmental Information". www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  17. ^ "Storm Events Database - Event Details | National Centers for Environmental Information". www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  18. ^ US Department of Commerce, NOAA. "NWS Jackson, MS - April 24, 2010 Violent Long Track Tornado". www.weather.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  19. ^ "EF3: Storm Events Database - Event Details | National Centers for Environmental Information". www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  20. ^ https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-08/ms_tornado_pre_mat_report_pub_use.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  21. ^ Harman, Wendy (2010-04-24). "Disaster Alert: Tornado in Yazoo City". red cross chat. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  22. ^ "Yazoo City recovering from April tornado". The Greenwood Commonwealth. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
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