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2010 Yazoo City tornado

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2010 natural disaster in the United States
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, 2010, 10:09 a.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 morning hours of April 24, 2010, 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.

The intense supercell produced the tornado a 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 strengthened back to an intense EF3 again as it crossed into Yazoo County. The tornado intensified into a violent low-end EF4 as it passed south of Yazoo City. It soon weakened to high-end EF3 and maintained that strength before again strengthening into a low-end EF4 a few miles southwest of Durant. Following this period of restrengthening, it maintained EF4 intensity. It then rapidly weakened into an EF3 near the town Weir, before it started to weaken even more. The tornado completely dissipated north of Sturgis.

This long-track and devastating tornado became the fourth longest in Mississippi history, and it used to be the largest tornado in the state's history; alongside that, the Yazoo City EF4 tornado was the first violent tornado to happen in Mississippi during April since 1978.

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. It 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. 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. Four "particularly dangerous situation" tornado watches were issued that day for areas of Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama.

Tornado summary

Louisiana

The tornado touched down in Madison Parish, few miles west of Tallulah; it passed 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 continued 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 multiple power lines were 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 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 weakened back down to a high-end EF2 where multiple homes and a few mobile homes around the Eagle Lake area were either damaged or destroyed, alongside 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. The tornado 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 abandoned building as it crosses Highway 61 south of Valley Park, Mississippi, cutting through the extreme southeastern portion of Sharkey County.

After leaving Sharkey County, the tornado 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 significant damages to homes and infrastructure 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 . As it reaches the intersection between Highway 49 and Highway 16, it reach its 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, this is also where it reach its 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 left Yazoo County and moved into Holmes County.

A church completely destroyed by the tornado

Entering Holmes County, it weakens down to an EF3 intensity and narrowed down slightly to 1.47 miles (2600 yards) as traverses through the rural areas of Mississippi, causing more tree damage as more homes are either damaged or destroyed, as it nears Durant, it re-strengthen back to an EF4 as two brick homes were completely leveled while homes nearby were heavily damaged, a mobile home was destroyed, killing a 70-year-old man inside of it, the tornado would cross I-55, sweeping many motor vehicles 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. The tornado then entered Attala County where it weakens down to an EF1 before it strengthen back up to a strong EF2 as it continues to cause strong tree damage and significant 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 leveled and a Crossroads Grocery was destroyed, as the tornado crossed Pisgah Rd, five people would be killed along here as multiple mobile homes were destroyed alongside homes with conventional foundations. Afterward, the tornado weakened to an EF2 intensity as it caused more heavy tree damage occurred, the tornado traveled an extra three miles through Oktibbeha County as it weakened to an EF1 intensity, and after being on the ground for nearly 150 miles and almost 3 hours, the tornado dissipated 5.5 miles north of Sturgis, Mississippi.

Impacts & aftermath

Linemen working on restoring power

Overall, the tornado caused $37 million in damage in Louisiana In total, the tornado damage 849 homes, businesses and agriculture and 283 of them were destroyed. The Central Mississippi chapter opened a shelter with supplies as well as emergency response vehicles, other places like L.T. Miller Community Center in Yazoo City, opened up as shelters. Months after the tornado happened, most of the debris has been cleared out and new powerlines were installed. Governor 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.

“The effects of these storms have left many Mississippians with destroyed businesses and without homes,”

— Haley Barbour

See also

References

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