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Ten Year Anniversary of the Brandon Tornado
November 21, 2002 marks the ten year anniversary of the violent F4 tornado that struck the
Florence and Brandon areas in 1992. This was a night where 15 tornadoes occurred across
Mississippi which caused 15 fatalities and 269 injuries. In Rankin county alone there were 10
fatalities and 98 injuries and millions of dollars in property damage.
The National Weather Service uses a Fujita tornado intensity scale to rate every tornado. The
scale runs from category F0 to F5 with five being the most intense. On the night of November 21
and continuing into the early morning hours of November 22, 1992 there were two F4 tornadoes
in the state. An F4 tornado is categorized as a Devastating Tornado with estimated winds speeds
of 207-260 miles an hour. One of the F4's moved through Rankin county and the other F4
occurred in Smith, Jasper, and Newton counties.
It is not uncommon to have tornadoes in November. Historically April has the highest occurrence
of tornadoes, but there is a secondary peak in the month of November. Late fall and early winter
tornadoes tend to be more violent. Since 1992 there have been five violent F4 tornadoes in
Mississippi. Out of the five, four have occurred in November. There were the two previously
mentioned tornadoes in 1992 and then there were two F4 tornadoes last November on the 24th.
One struck Madison county and the other struck Washington and Bolivar counties. The tornadoes
last November caused two fatalities in Madison county.
This would be a good time for everyone to check their preparedness plans. Be sure you have a
means of receiving severe weather information. A good source for severe weather watch and
warning information is NOAA weather radio with county specific encoding.
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