We got up on the morning of this outbreak to look at the new model data only to see that storm initiation closer to the low had already gotten started. By this time an EF-3 tornado had struck the town of Cincinnati, Ar., and another EF-3 had struck Fort Leonard Wood and Rolla, Mo. After we got caught up on everything that had happened up to this point, we finished looking over the 12z model runs and mesoanalysis data, and we hit the road around 11:00 a.m. Our initial target area was Vicksburg, Ms., which would allow us to easily adjust in any direction we needed including crossing the Mississippi river into Louisiana. We sat in Vicksburg watching the clouds across the river from the overlook for an hour or so, then storms finally started initiating to our southwest near Alexandria, La. After studying GR3 and looking at the storm tracks we moved across the river to Tallulah, La. to get in a better position as it was likely we were going to be moving south to intercept.
The first tornado warning of the day was issued at around 1:30 p.m. east of Alexandria, and ten minutes or so later another tornado warning was issued on a cell moving north northeast toward our location. From there headed south on Hwy 65 to Tensas Parish to intercept the storm. This is where once again the data problems began, first dropping to 2G coverage a little south of Tallulah, then losing data all together around Newellton, La. Though these storms were high precipitation, it was at least day time, so we continued on to Clayton, La. When we arrived there we stopped and attempted to get our equipment up and running again (we've since upgraded several things to prevent these problems in the future). In the mean time the storms we were attempting to intercept were moving west of us by a few miles, so once we got everything fixed we turned around and Paralleled the storms back north toward Tallulah. As we passed through Newellton again we had storms to our north, west, and south quickly forming into a QLCS that would soon push eastward and overtake us. From this point forward we were fighting a losing battle to get back north to Tallulah and east back into Ms. and ahead of the line. At one point we did see a distinct lowering from the cloud base to our west, after that we could barely see the road much less the clouds around us.
We got back to Tallulah having encountered extremely heavy rain, high wind, and some small hail along the way. At that point we got radar updates flowing again studying the radar while trying to get back to Vicksburg. We continued east on I-20 very slowly toward the river stuck behind the line the whole time, but once we got to the Mississippi river bridge at around 4:35 p.m. we had to stop as soon as we got across at I-20 and Hwy 61S. It was a couple of minutes prior that we got a radar update showing the cell moving through Warren County with a strong couplet that would be tracking north northeast across I-20 right in front of us. As we sat there, we began getting strong inflow winds and hail as a rain wrapped tornado touched down about one and half miles to our east southeast and moved northeast a couple of miles before lifting. From there we tried to get back to Jackson to intercept an intense supercell that developed ahead of the line moving northeast from Copiah County. We had to get off of I-20 due to traffic being completely stopped, so we exited and got onto Hwy 80 traveling east toward Bovina, Ms. Things were very slow moving at this point thanks to the highway being mostly under water along our route. Finally we made there and got back on I-20 on the other side of the traffic jam that was blocking I-20. Next stop, Jackson.
As we neared the Jackson metro area, a tornado warning had been issued for Hinds and Rankin County, and a chaser in front of the storm had just reported a tornado on the ground moving out of Terry, Ms. toward Byram at about 4:50 p.m. Heavy rain and rush hour traffic on I-20 in Jackson would further prevent us from getting ahead of the storm, so we just had to try our best to get as close as possible to this tornado from the west side. We passed through Clinton about the same time that a tornado emergency was being issued by Jackson NWS at 4:57 p.m. as the tornado crossed I-55 at Byram, Ms. as an EF-2. At this point we knew the tornado was going to cross I-20 near Pearl, Ms. and because of the traffic we'd never make it that far in time, so we opted to get on I-55N and go to Hwy 25 where we could meet it as it crossed the highway just northeast of the Jackson WFO in Flowood. The tornado weakened to an EF-1 as it moved just west of Richland at 5:09 p.m. before continuing northeast to Pearl crossing Hwy 80 at around 5:15 p.m. and causing damage to businesses and houses in the area. At this point we were making our way down Hwy 25 toward the Dogwood area to meet the tornado as it crossed, but it lifted just south of Hwy 25 after crossing the runway at the Jackson International Airport. The circulation we were seeing on radar at this time was still quite strong, and this tornado was already at long track status, so thinking that it may be cycling we turned onto Old Fannin Rd. and drove toward the Ross Barnett Reservior to keep up with it. Our next radar update showed a further weakening area of circulation transitioning to more of a high wind situation at this point. As we approached Hwy 471 we decided it was time to abandon this storm and head back south to Brandon, Ms. to intercept the next storm tracking northeast toward the city. This storm started off with a strong couplet but quickly weakened as it made it's way toward our new position east of Brandon on I-20. It ended up crossing the interstate at the Rankin/Smith County line as nothing more than a severe thunderstorm.
We headed back to Pearl at this time and observed the damaged areas along Hwy 80. We then went south on Hwy 49 and went into Byram through the back roads making as far as the east side of I-55 before encountering the heavily damaged area closed off by emergency services. From there we went back up I-55 to Pearl and waited on the next storm that had become tornado warned to our south in Copiah County. This storm had dropped an EF-1 tornado near Brookhaven, Ms. and made it as far north as the Hinds/Rankin county line before weakening. That storm moved northeast through Smith County but showed very weak signs of rotation all the way up, so we headed back to Pearl to check out some additional damage areas. Emergency crews were everywhere in this area, and there wasn't much we could do to help out, so we called our chase at around 9 p.m. and headed back home. All storms at this point were moving well out of our range, and there wasn't much going on anyway.
Jackson NWS did it's regularly scheduled balloon launch at 10:00 p.m since they were likely too busy at the normal 6:00 p.m. time. The atmosphere was still very impressive at this point as it was showing the area in a high cape/high shear environment. It was also at this time that a surface low developed over western La. and central Ms. and tracked northeast sparking a whole new round of severe weather that would start at around mid-night. The second round of storms spawned two EF-3 tornadoes in Attala and Noxubee counties, an EF-2 in Kemper/Noxubee counties, and 4 EF-1s in Choctaw, Oktibbeha, and Kemper counties overnight. We went back to the Jackson area tornado path the following day and took pictures of the areas that we couldn't get to the night before.
Related images and graphics:
SREF data at 500mb and 925mb for New Year's Eve.
SPC soundings for 6 a.m., 12 p.m., and 10 p.m. on the day of the event.
Velocity image of the tornado entering the city of Byram.
Velocity image of the tornado entering the city of Pearl.
Some photos of the damage in Byram, Ms.
Some pictures of the damage in Pearl, Ms.
Jason & Jonathan Brooks
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