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2020 Bassfield–Soso tornado

2020 EF4 tornado in Mississippi, USA

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The tornado touched down south of Bassfield, snapping trees, causing significant roof damage, and destroying a mobile home. As it intensified, several trees were violently debarked and denuded. The tornado then strengthened to high-end EF4 intensity as it struck the small community of Cantwell Mill. Several homes and a restaurant were heavily damaged or destroyed, including a well-constructed cabin that was swept away. The tornado continued, debarking and denuding several more trees and significantly damaging homes. The tornado weakened slightly before becoming violent for the second time, leveling a home near Seminary. More trees and infrastructure were severely damaged as the tornado entered Jones County, impacting the town of Soso, leveling a gas station and inflicting significant to intense damage to other homes and businesses in town. The tornado then impacted the community of Moss, causing catastrophic damage to multiple homes and businesses. The tornado continued northeast, inflicting significant damage to trees and infrastructure, before dissipating north of Pachuta.

The tornado itself had a peak width of 2.25 mi (3,960 yd), becoming the largest tornado in Mississippi history and the third-largest tornado on record in the United States, and the fourth widest worldwide, surpassing the Trousdale EF3 tornado and only behind the 2004 Hallam tornado, the 2016 Funing tornado, and the 2013 El Reno tornado. At one point, doppler radar recorded that the tornado was surrounded by a cloud of debris that was approximately five miles wide.

Meteorological synopsis

The first indications of organized severe weather came on April 8, when the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) outlined 15% probabilities for severe weather within 25 mi (40 km) of a point from central Texas eastward into the Florida Panhandle and eastern Georgia valid for April 11–12. These threat areas were later refined with the introduction of a day-3 moderate risk, the fourth of five threat levels, across northeastern Louisiana through central Alabama on April 10. Historically, the SPC issues one day-3 moderate risk every year, and half of those over the previous decade were later upgraded to High risk, the highest threat level. Over subsequent days, a significant mid-level shortwave trough progressed eastward across the United States. By the pre-dawn hours of April 12, mid-level cooling associated with the feature overspread the Edwards Plateau, Hill Country, and much of central Texas. Accordingly, an intense line of severe thunderstorms developed along a dry line while vigorous convective development formed farther east. These thunderstorms were initially isolated in nature but soon coalesced into a mesoscale convective system as they encountered an enhanced corridor of warm air streaming northward, as well as very strong wind shear. These initial storms produced scattered weak tornadoes in Texas during the early stages of the outbreak.

This storm complex progressed across northern Louisiana through the late morning and early afternoon hours, and embedded circulations within the line began producing strong tornadoes, contributing to multiple tornado debris signatures visible on radar. The first strong tornado as well as the first one to cause casualties was in Desoto Parish, where an EF2 tornado destroyed manufactured homes and damaged trees and homes, injuring two people. The first intense and notable tornado was an EF3 tornado that triggered a tornado emergency as it moved through downtown Monroe, and damaging or destroying numerous homes, but there were no casualties. To the north, a second EF3 tornado near Sterlington caused extensive tree damage. In advance of the line, a lifting warm front aided in the formation of a very moist, highly unstable, and highly sheared environment across northeastern Louisiana and much of Mississippi. Accordingly, the SPC issued a particularly dangerous situation tornado watch into the late evening hours.

A weather balloon launch from Jackson, Mississippi, at 18:00 UTC revealed the presence of a capping inversion across the region. This cap was expected to weaken across central Mississippi. At the same time, forecasters expressed more uncertainty about its longevity across southern Mississippi and Louisiana. As a small area of low pressure progressed across northwestern Mississippi, it caused surface winds to turn out of the east-southeast, enhancing the potential for tornadoes. As a cluster of storms across central Mississippi progressed toward the northeast, it began to reintensify and develop embedded supercell characteristics with an attendant threat of strong tornadoes.

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