Tornadoes Devastate Southern Mississippi Towns

A swarm of tornadoes tore through Mississippi on Wednesday, May 6, including a long-track, strong twister.

So far, the National Weather Service has confirmed six tornadoes in southern Mississippi from Wednesday's severe weather. Meteorologists from the NWS-Jackson, Mississippi, office will continue their surveys, so the final tornado count is still to be determined.

Strong Tornado Stayed On The Ground For 60+ Miles

NWS-Jackson found evidence of a long-track tornado spawned by one supercell thunderstorm in southern Mississippi.

It initially touched down in northern Wilkinson County, according to the damage survey. The storm tracked into far southeastern Adams County, then moved into Franklin County, Lincoln County and western Lawrence County before the tornado lifted on the south side of Monticello. The communities of Garden City, West Lincoln, Bogue Chitto, Enterprise, East Lincoln and Harmony all saw impacts.

Homes were damaged in the Thayer community south of Brookhaven as the tornado crossed Interstate 55.

This tornado was on the ground for nearly two hours and brought multiple areas of EF3 damage. The first was "an area of nearly complete devastation to mixed forest, including some instances of debarking, east of the Garden City community."

There was more EF3 damage spotted in western Lincoln County near Jackson Liberty Drive, where two truss transmission towers were damaged. One of these was bent to the ground and the other collapsed completely.

A third area of EF3 damage was reported along US HWS 51 between Brookhaven and Bogue Chitto. More debarking off trees occurred and a home's exterior walls collapsed. A mobile home park was devastated "with debris and vehicles rowed along a center vortex path". Franklin, Lincoln and Lawrence Counties saw EF2 damage as well.

Other Tornadoes

There was also an EF2 tornado reported in Purvis in Lamar County. The tornado began near Tatum Salt Dome Road and R Thompson Road and moved east. Western Purvis in the Boggy Hollly area saw outbuildings damaged or destroyed. Also, a mobile home was blown off of its blocks just north of Purvis -to-Columbia Road.

Its worst damage occurred along Central Industrial Row where several metal building system warehouse and commercial buildings had walls and internal structures, including pillars, columns and roofing purlins destroyed.

There were also an EF0 and two EF1s in southern Mississippi.

In total there have been 5 tornadoes confirmed and 17 people were injured.

(MORE: How Tornadoes Are Rated)

Heavy Rainfall

While most of the rain was generally beneficial for the widespread drought in the South, there were a few instances of flash flooding.

The most notable happened in Montgomery, Alabama, where flooding infiltrated the Alabama State House. A water rescue was needed after a car was swept away by flooding near Collins, Mississippi.

(MORE: Flood Safety Guide)

Widespread rainfall of 1-4 inches were observed, with isolated totals exceeding 5 inches.

Rob Shackelford is a meteorologist and climate scientist at weather.com. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia studying meteorology and experimenting with alternative hurricane forecasting tools.