We are continuing our coverage of the devastating tornado that ripped through the rural town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
While the total damage to ag from the EF4 tornado is still unknown, the brutal weather was felt all across the southeast.
USDA Meteorologist, Brad Rippey explains how he thinks these events were actually two long-track tornadoes.
According to Rippey, “Starting on Thursday, March 23rd and continuing through Sunday the 26th. Now, that began with a couple of tornadoes in Texas last Thursday, and then the big day of the outbreak occurred on Friday night when we saw preliminary reports indicating as many as 20 tornadoes across Mississippi, Alabama, and into southern Tennessee. But I think when all these tracks are pieced together, we’re going to find a much lower total number of tornadoes. What it appears is that we had at least two very long-track tornadoes. That is, tornadoes that spent at least half an hour to an hour or more on the ground.”
As for the tornado in Rolling Fork, farmers there experienced wind gusts as high as 200 miles per hour. The storm was on the ground for more than an hour and was more than three-quarters of a mile wide.
