Precipitation

Tornado Tracks

Damage

Destruction in the path of Hurricane Katrina has been widespread and
overwhelming. catastrophic destruction was left across the Gulf
Coast and parts of southeast Mississippi. Several visual surveys
were made by NWS personnel across portions of central...east-central
and southeast Mississippi. These surveys indicated widespread damage
comparable to F1 and F2 tornadoes...with areas bordering on F3 type
damage. The most extensive damage...from the surveyed areas...is
roughly located south and east of a Purvis to Collins to Newton to
Meridian line. Areas north of I-20 have considerable tree
damage...comparable to an F1 tornado...but the damage is not as
widespread like across southeast Mississippi.

The swath of damage extended across central and northern sections of
Mississippi. Downed trees and power lines have been reported as far
west as Bolivar county with wind gusts over 50 mph observed at many
locations along the Mississippi river.

Hurricane Katrina has proven to be a national disaster, leaving
untold numbers dead, thousands of homes destroyed and hundreds of
thousands of households damaged or without power.

Please take note that meteorological observations were incomplete
from many area weather stations during the storm due to widespread
wind-related power and communication outages. Some of the data had
to be estimated or just simply marked as "missing" because of this
issue. Any estimated data are noted in the tables below.
Additionally...most of the wind and pressure observations occurred
8/29 and were only dated if they occurred during a different
calendar date (UTC time).


A.  Wind Data...

    Sustained two-minute winds...ASOS/AWOS

    Jackson International Airport...350 degs at 41 kt...

    Sustained two-minute winds...other reports

    WDAM-TV...Ellisville...Jones county...70 kt

    ASOS/AWOS/Military sites (peak wind gusts in knots)

    County/Parish..location.................speed...time (utc)

    Lauderdale.....Meridian NAS (NMM).......70......2051
    Rankin.........NWS Jackson  (JAN).......56......2014
    Lowndes........Columbus AFB (CBM).......50......0100 (30th)
    Madison LA.....Tallulah LA (TVR)........48......1834
    Carroll........Greenwood (GWO)..........46......2153
    Washington.....Greenville (GLH).........44......2223

    other measured wind gusts

    County/Parish..location.................speed...time (utc)

    Jones..........Ellisville/WDAM-TV......114 mph..1830 (est)
    Jones..........Laurel..................110 mph..1900 (est)
    Forrest........Hattiesburg.............100 mph..1800 (est)
    Marion.........Columbia................ 81 mph..1800 (est)
    Oktibbeha......Starkville...............76 mph..0030 (est)

note:  NWS JAN noted a brief wind peak of 74 mph which did not meet
the ASOS requirements to be reported as a peak gust. The
observations in Jones and Forrest counties were the highest recorded
before the anemometers failed. The peak winds at the observation
sites at TVR...GLH...and GWO are those observed before the sites
went down due to power failures. The highest sustained winds are
only reported for jan because that was the only site that maintained
power during the height of the event...and hence this is considered to
be the only reliable peak sustained wind observation.

B.  Sea Level Pressure Data...

    (lowest minimum sea level pressure observed in millibars)

    pressure mb..time (utc)...county......location
    947.0........1830 (est)...Jones.......Ellisville/WDAM-TV
    951.0........1800 (est)...Marion......Columbia EOC
    964.4........2355.........Lauderdale..NAS Meridian (NMM)
    973.3........2129.........Rankin......NWS Jackson (JAN)
    977.0........0300 (30th)..Oktibbeha...Starkville
    980.4........0355 (30th)..Lowndes.....Columbus AFB (cbm)
    992.8........0156 (30th)..Washington..Greenville (glh)

note:  The pressure at NWS JAN is an all-time record for the lowest
sea level pressure ever observed at JAN.  28.74 inches breaks the
previous record of 28.94 inches...set on August 17...1969 during
Hurricane Camille.

C.  Storm Total Rain Amounts...

    ASOS/AWOS (storm total rain in inches)
    data compiled from 08/29/05 00z through 08/30/05 12z

    county/parish.......location.................rain amount
    Lowndes.............Columbus air base (CBM)..5.79
    Rankin..............NWS Jackson (JAN)........3.93
    Washington..........Greenville (GLH).........2.08

    other observations (storm total rain in inches)
    data compiled from 08/29/05 00z through 08/30/05 12z

    location................................rain amount
    Marion County (just west of Columbia)...8.20
    Noxapater...............................7.90
    Tombigbee National Forest at Ackerman...7.52
    Bowie Creek (north of Hattiesburg)......7.35
    Conehatta...............................7.00
    13 mi sse of Kosciusko..................6.80
    Brooklyn................................6.78
    Philadelphia............................6.72
    Okatoma River at Sanford................6.19
    Edinburg................................6.15
    Pelahatchie.............................5.90
    Ofahoma.................................5.88
    Ellisville/WDAM-TV......................5.81
    Ethel...................................5.70
    Hattiesburg.............................5.18
    Kosciusko...............................4.27

F.  Flooding and/or Flash Flooding...

    Preliminary reports indicate that extensive urban and flash
    flooding occurred at the height of the storm along and east of
    Interstate 55. However...the magnitude and impact of this
    flooding is still unknown at this time.

G.  Tornadoes...

    A total of 11 tornadoes have been surveyed from Hurricane
    Katrina and were associated with outer bands ahead of the
    northward moving storm. Most of the tornadoes occurred across
    Lauderdale...Kemper...Newton and Neshoba counties...with 5 of
    the 11 occurring in Neshoba county alone. The majority of these
    tornadoes were brief and on the ground for 2-4 miles.
    additionally...all of the damage was confined to fallen trees
    and minor damage to roofs and out buildings. Most of the
    tornadoes were rated F1 and resided on the low end of the scale.
    However...2 tornadoes were a bit stronger and produced F2 type
    tree damage. The first F2 tornado occurred just nne of Decatur
    in central Newton county. Here many very large trees were
    uprooted or snapped and laid in all directions. The second F2
    occurred in southeast Neshoba county just south of the house
    community off highway 19. Again...numerous large trees were
    uprooted and snapped. No injuries or fatalities occurred with
    any tornadoes.

H.  Preliminary Storm Effects

    -at least isolated tree damage across the whole county
      warning area.
    -widespread tree and powerline damage in Mississippi
      counties.
    -widespread tree...powerline and structural damage to homes
      and businesses along and east of the Natchez Trace.
    -extensive tree...powerline and structural damage in southeast
      Mississippi. area extends roughly along and east of the Pearl
      River and southeast of Magee to Newton to Meridian line.
      damage equivalent to F1 to F2 tornado damage in some areas.
    -as of this time...there have been 23 confirmed fatalities in
      the Jackson CWA related to Katrina. Since the exact
      circumstances of these deaths are not known...it is uncertain
      how many will be considered direct storm-related fatalities.

Other Katrina Links:
NOAA Coastal Images
/http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/

Mississippi Newspapers
http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Newspapers/By_Region/U_S__States/Mississippi/Complete_List/

http://www.gismaps.fema.gov//2005graphics/dr1604/rs_mississippi_floodpop_0901.pdf

http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/katrina/Hurricane_Katrina-Mississippi_Coastline.pdf