January 21st 2016 Tornadoes

January 21, 2016 Tornadoes

 Event Summary

A strong upper trough began to deepen across the central Plains on Thursday, January 21st. This trough became very deep and strong aloft, driving a strong surface low to develop across eastern Texas by later that morning. This surface low pressure and a stalled frontal boundary were key in the severe weather development later that evening. The surface low gradually moved east into the ArkLaMiss region later that afternoon to evening. As the surface and upper low deepened in central to southern Mississippi, muggy air with temperatures in the upper 60s to low 70s and high dewpoints in the upper 60s to low 70s moved in mainly along and south of the I-20 corridor. However, areas in northern Mississippi were only experiencing temperatures in the 40s north of that stalled frontal boundary. There was a combination of enough wind shear and moisture for supercell thunderstorms to develop in the late evening and produce a total of five tornadoes across the area, with one being a strong tornado (EF2 in Lamar County). These supercells gradually weakened late in the evening and became a strong squall line. The showers and storms finally moved out of the area mainly after midnight.

This strong surface low rapidly strengthened as it began to move through northern Mississippi later that night into Friday. This, added to a very deep upper trough, brought enough cold air for some light snow to fall on the backside the following day on Friday, January 22nd. Most areas received flurries but some areas in the Highway 82 corridor received light accumulations, mainly from a dusting in northeast Mississippi to around an inch in the northwest ArkLaMiss Delta. This surface low pressure gradually went on to produce a large blizzard along the East Coast.

Tornado Event Track Map

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Copiah County EF-0 Tornado

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Lincoln/Copiah County EF-1 Tornado

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Pinola EF-1 Tornado

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Scott EF-0 Tornado

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Lamar County EF-2 Tornado

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