National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce
Banner
Banner Banner Banner Banner Banner Banner

Summary of the National Outbreak

Moisture-rich tropical air covered the southeastern United States from Texas eastward to Georgia and northward to the Ohio River Valley. Tremendous energy was released in this unseasonably warm and unstable air mass as a low pressure center entered Texas from the west. This setup resulted in a three day severe weather outbreak that was unusually widespread and intense. It covered 13 states, beginning in southeast Texas during the early afternoon of Saturday, November 21st 1992 and ending Monday morning, November 23rd along the central portion of the Atlantic Seaboard. This outbreak produced 94 tornadoes and was responsible for 26 deaths and 641 injuries.

Tornado Map
Image courtesy of NWS Raleigh NC

 

Summary of the ArkLaMiss Outbreak
Mississippi was dealt the hardest blow during this tornado outbreak. There were 15 fatalities (10 in Rankin County, 2 in Webster County,1 in Leake County, 1 in Choctaw County, and 1 in Kemper County) and 269 injuries. Nearly 300 homes were destroyed and over 700 damaged, with 21 counties declared disaster areas.Nearly all of the damage occurred with two storm cells that entered south Mississippi and tracked northeast into central and northeast Mississippi.

The first storm crossed Lincoln and Copiah Counties, producing two short track tornadoes. The beginning of a long track that included a violent tornado touched down in northeast Copiah County and tracked across northeast Simpson, Rankin, northwest Scott into Attala County before lifting. The same storm then produced several short track tornadoes across Choctaw, Webster, and Chickasaw Counties.

The second storm entered Lawrence County then produced a strong tornado in southwest Jefferson Davis County that moved into northwest Covington County and lifted in southwest Smith County. The storm then produced a violent tornado along a track from central Smith County that tracked across Jasper County and into south central Newton County. Several short track tornadoes were produced from this storm over Neshoba, Lauderdale, Kemper and Noxubee Counties before the storm moved into Alabama.

Several strong tornadoes tracked across northeast Louisiana. Two short track but strong tornadoes touched down near Monterey, one in Concordia Parish and another across the Black River in Catahoula Parish. A strong tornado with a 16 mile track moved across Tensas Parish. A longer track strong tornado touched down in Catahoula Parish and tracked to the northeast across Tensas and Madison Parishes.

 

ArkLaMiss Tornado Track Map
The map below shows the locations of surveyed tornado tracks across the ArkLaMiss region as determined by the National Weather Service. The graphic is followed by a table detailing each surveyed tornado track. Maps for individual tornadoes can be found on those subsequent pages.

Tornado Map

Catahoula Parish F2Concordia Parish F3Northeast Louisiana F3Tensas Parish F2Brookhaven/Wesson F2Copiah County F1Mt Olive F3Brandon F4Sharkey County F1Sylvarena F4Newton/Neshoba County F1Webster County F1Kemper/Noxubee County F2Noxubee County F2Kemper County F2Lauderdale County F0

 

 

Tornado Track Information - Click on the location in the table for additional details

 

Location Start/
End Time
Event Type/
Max Winds
Fatalities/
Injuries
Path Length Path Width
Catahoula Parish
Parhams/1 WNW Monterey
Sat 11/21
9:45 pm -
9:45 pm
F2 Tornado none 1/2 mile 100 yards
Concordia Parish
Monterey to 4 NNE Monterey
Sat 11/21
9:45 pm -
9:45 pm
F3 Tornado Deaths: 0
Injuries: 6
3 miles 100 yards
Catahoula/Tensas/Madison Parishes
Foules to Cooter Point to 4 SE Tallulah
Sat 11/21
9:55 pm -
10:55 pm
F3 Tornado Deaths: 0
Injuries: 11
46 miles 200 yards
Tensas Parish
2 W Goldman to 5 S Newellton
Sat 11/21
10:18 pm -
10:32 pm
F2 Tornado none 16 miles 100 yards
Lincoln and Copiah Counties
2 E of West Lincoln to Wesson
Sat 11/21
10:50 pm -
11:05 pm
F2 Tornado none 18.7 miles 1/4 mile
Copiah County
3 SSE Hazlehurst to 2 SW Hopewell
Sat 11/21
11:15 pm -
11:24 pm
F1 Tornado none 10 miles 1/4 mile
Jefferson Davis and Covington Counties
8 SW Carson to 2 NE Mount Olive
Sat 11/21
11:23 pm -
Sun 11/22
12:05 am
F3 Tornado Deaths: 0
Injuries: 105+
29 miles 1/2 mile
Copiah/Simpson/Rankin/Scott/Leake/
Attala/Choctaw Counties

1 N Hopewell to 4 SW Mathiston (Brandon/Florence/Weir)
Sat 11/21
11:27 pm -
Sun 11/22
2:01 am
F4 Tornado Deaths: 12
Injuries: 122
128 miles 1/2 mile
Sharkey County
2 N Valley Park to 2 SW Holly Bluff
Sat 11/21
11:30 pm-
11:38 pm
F1 Tornado Deaths: 0
Injuries: 4
10 miles 1/4 mile
Smith/Jasper/Newton Counties
2 SE Mize to Newton (Sylvarena)
Sun 11/22
12:14 am -
1:14 am
F4 Tornado Deaths: 0
Injuries: 20
40 miles 1 mile
Newton and Neshoba Counties
Little Rock to 2 N House
Sun 11/22
1:22 am -
1:35 am
F1 Tornado none 9 miles 200 yards
Webster County
1 SW Clarkson to 3 W Woodland
Sun 11/22
2:14 am -
2:25 am
F1 Tornado Deaths: 2
Injuries: 0
9 miles 200 yards
Kemper and Noxubee Counties
3 NW De Kalb to 6 E Macon
Sun 11/22
2:15 am -
2:55 am
F2 Tornado Deaths: 1
Injuries: 1
27 miles 1/2 mile
Noxubee County
4 SSW Prairie Point to 2 NE Bigbee Valley
Sun 11/22
2:45 am -
3:10 am
F2 Tornado Deaths: 0
Injuries: 15
13 miles 1/4 mile
Kemper County
4 N Meridian Station to 5 ENE Scooba
Sun 11/22
2:45 am -
3:20 am
F2 Tornado none 23 miles 1/2 mile
Lauderdale County
9 SE Meridian
Sun 11/22
3:20 am-
3:22 am
F0 Tornado none 2 miles 100 yards