[NASA] Tornado Draws a Jagged Line in Mississippi

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3. Tornado Draws a Jagged Line in…

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Vegetation damaged by an EF-3 tornado in southern Mississippi appears in a tan line in an image acquired on May 12, 2026, with the

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(Operational Land Imager) on

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.

NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin

A powerful

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storm produced multiple tornadoes across southern Mississippi on May 6, 2026. The longest and most powerful spanned five counties, delivering wind speeds up to 137 miles (220 kilometers) per hour and EF-3 damage, as gauged by the

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, to several areas.

Part of this tornado’s destructive path was visible to the

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satellite when it passed over the area on May 12. Winds snapped, uprooted, and tore bark and branches off trees, creating a brownish track across the landscape. This area, south of Brookhaven in Lincoln County, was one that sustained EF-3 damage. National Weather Service (NWS)

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noted extensive tree damage, a home whose exterior walls collapsed, and a mobile home park “devastated with debris.”

The tornado covered much more ground than is captured in this scene. It began in St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge near the Mississippi River, approximately 60 miles (100 kilometers) west-southwest of Brookhaven. In just over two hours, it traveled nearly 82 miles (132 kilometers), placing it among some of the

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recorded in Mississippi. Heavy tree damage occurred along its entire path, NWS surveys found, with several instances of EF-2 structural damage and bent or collapsed transmission towers.

Seven tornadoes occurred in Mississippi on the evening of May 6, according to

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as of May 20. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency received reports of damage to more than 400 homes and dozens of businesses and farm buildings statewide after the storms, according to a

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, the majority of which were in

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The Gulf Coast and other southeastern states are not considered part of what’s commonly known as

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, an area encompassing much of the U.S. central and southern plains where supercells tend to form. However, this

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is also tornado-prone, experiencing a relatively high frequency of tornadoes in spring and late autumn. Historically in Mississippi, the most

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—an average of more than seven—occur in April, while May averages just over three. Some

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have

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decreases in tornado frequency in the Great Plains and

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in the Southeast over several decades.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the 

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. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

Downloads

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May 12, 2026

JPEG (6.20 MB)

References & Resources

• AccuWeather (2026, May 7)
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  . Accessed May 20, 2026.
• Kentucky Lantern (2025, May 19)
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  . Accessed May 20, 2026.
• Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (2026, May 12)
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  . Accessed May 20, 2026.
• NASA Applied Sciences (2025, March 24) 
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  . Accessed May 20, 2026.
• National Centers for Environmental Information,
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  . Accessed May 20, 2026.
• National Weather Service (2026, May)
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  . Accessed May 20, 2026.
• National Weather Service,
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  . Accessed May 20, 2026.
• NOAA (2026, May) 
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  . Accessed May 20, 2026.

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