The first tornado warning of the day was issued at 1:10 p.m. for Toledo County, Tx. This storm was well south of our target area, but we knew then that we had to get moving to get in position as these storms tracked northeast toward the I-20 corridor. By the time we got into La. that afternoon plenty of storms were making their way across Louisiana including a storm that would later produce an EF-4 tornado that destroyed 3 homes near Atlanta, La. We moved into position in Rayville, La. at around 3:30 p.m. and awaited this storm with a history of producing tornadoes as it tracked northeast towards us. Fellow chasers David Reimer and Scott Peake were already on the storm trying to keep up with it after it crossed I-49 in central La. After this storm made it's way northeast a new tornado warning was issued for the city of Monroe, La. We were still sitting in Rayville at this time, and after looking at our radar data and seeing that storms were moving more to the east, we decided to go back east to Delhi, La. to get back east of the line.
We sat in Delhi until a tornado warning was issued at around 6:30 p.m. on a storm headed directly toward us, our position was perfect. Unfortunately it was dark by this time, so any developing tornado would be hard to see. The storm ended up crossing I-20 and tracked northeast but never dropped a tornado, at this time we headed east again to Tallulah where we stopped for gas and looked at the radar again. From there we traveled back across the Mississippi river and headed north on Hwy 61 to intercept the storms that were still tracking northeast through northern La. toward Warren, Issaquena, and Sharkey Countys in Ms. After getting in position near Cary, Ms. we sat and watched the incoming barrage of lightning. As tornado warned storms began crossing the river I noticed that we were no longer getting updates on GR3. All i knew was we were going to be very close to an area of strong rotation that would cross 61N in the next 15 minutes or so, it was once again decision time.
It was at this time that we decided to go back south to Hwy 3 and try to get back in data range since we'd lost mobile internet all together where we were sitting. It was not a good situation to be in at night with a possible tornado moving toward us in a heavily wooded area. These tornadoes were also rain wrapped, so those were the main factors in getting to a safer area. We were near Hwy 3 when a rain wrapped tornado touched down on the east side of Hwy 61 at about 7:25 p.m. just to our north, the problem was we didn't know it. After having to go back south into Warren county to get radar data going again we were told via phone that a possible tornado was moving through Yazoo City (again). We knew by this time we were way too far behind the storm to catch back up. That tornado was later rated EF-1 and EF-2 as it moved through the Yazoo City area damaging houses and businesses downtown. Here it was decided that we would continue south back into Vicksburg to intercept another tornado warned cell moving toward the city, so we shot down hwy 27 and stopped at Warren Central High School just in time for it's arrival. Once again this possible tornado was rain wrapped, and the radar was showing strong rotation that would move north of us by about a mile. Just after it passed over the highway an EF-0 tornado touched down a few miles northeast of our position. We waited in the parking lot while the storm's rfd blew through then jumped back on I-20 east to try and keep up with the storm.
Upon entering Edwards, Ms. on I-20 we exited there and got on Hwy 22 traveling northeast to stay parallel with the storm. Once we got to Hwy 49 at around 9:30 p.m., it was time to abandon this cell and head for the next one as the storm kept pulling away from us moving into Yazoo County. From there we dropped back south on Hwy 49 to Clinton, Ms. to intercept another tornado warned cell with strong rotation moving toward the Jackson Metro area. This storm had a history of producing tornadoes in Claiborne County, so we figured it was worth having a live stream on it. As we entered Clinton the radar signature was just southwest of the city moving northeast between Clinton and Bolton a few miles to our west, but this possible tornado was hard to see due to a small amount of lightning during this time and lots of trees. After the storm moved through the area we headed down Hwy 80 through Clinton and Jackson and went north on I-220 to Madison, Ms. to catch the storm again. We traveled north on 220 and got on to I-55N pulling over just north of Madison at Gluckstadt, Ms. This is the point where we saw a wall cloud moving northeast, but it weakened fairly quickly as it moved northeast. Going by radar data at the time, the velocity signature disappeared and an area of straight line winds developed causing wind damage along Hwy 43 in Madison County.
After this storm moved ahead of us through Madison County into Leake County, we once again were unable to keep up. After abandoning that storm and hanging out in the Canton, Ms. area, most of the storms that were still potentially producing were well outside of our range. At this point we decided to call it a night and head home. We discussed driving back up to Yazoo City to see if we could stream some of the damage online, but we found out that law enforcement had the entire downtown area closed off. We didn't end up with a lot photo/video wise, and we almost got hit by a tornado thanks to bad data areas, but all in all it was an exciting and interesting chase.
Here's a picture of the wall cloud we saw just north of Madison, Ms. Image is a video grab.
Here's a Skew-T sounding taken from a balloon launch at 6 p.m. on November 29th.
Here's an image of all storm based warnings issued during the outbreak.
If I can find where I saved all of my NWS graphics from that day, I'll post them on here.
Jason Brooks
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