Northwest Mississippi Tornado

Saturday, November 24, 2001 

The National Weather Service has completed a damage survey regarding a tornado that moved through parts of northwest Mississippi during the early morning hours of Saturday, November 24th. 

A supercell thunderstorm developed over Bolivar county and began moving northeast as a line of thunderstorms approached the Mississippi River. The supercell thunderstorm produced sporadic straight line winds damage over southeastern Coahoma County and southwest Quitman county before spawning a F2 (winds near 150 mph) tornado that first touched down around 3:10 AM along Highway 322 where it crosses into Quitman county.  The tornado continued northeast through the community of Belen and reach the town of Sledge in northern Quitman County around 3:25 AM. Two persons were killed, sixteen others were injured, and numerous buildings were destroyed in Quitman County. The tornado continued northeast into Panola county where it passed just south of the town of Crenshaw. A cluster of homes were destroyed along with a baptist church. In Panola county, one person was killed and twelve others were injured. The tornado continued northeast into southwest Tate county near the community of Strayhorn. Five injuries were reported in Tate county along with numerous buildings  being damaged or destroyed.  The tornado then lifted over Tate county while still producing straight line wind damage as the storm moved into southeastern DeSoto county.  The severe storm than produced another F2 tornado (winds around 115mph) that touched down just southwest of Lewisburg in Desoto county. Approximately eighteen homes were damaged and several other mobile homes were completely destroyed. Five injuries were reported in eastern DeSoto county. The tornado lifted as it moved into northeast DeSoto county, however the storm continued to produce significant straight line wind damage (winds between 90 and 100 mph) as it moved into the Collierville area in southeast Shelby county. 

Click on the following thumbnails to see larger pictures of some of the tornadic and straight-line wind damage.