Several rotating super cells moved into central Mississippi today with the worst storm moving from western Yazoo county all the way to Lowndes county on the Alabama border northeast of Columbus. Along the storm's path there were numerous reports of a tornado with damage and injuries from Pickens/Goodman to McCool, across Choctaw county and then in Caledonia. This cell has a path length of at least 100 miles. In looking at the damage in Caledonia with cars tossed about and damage to a school gymnasium I'd say at least EF3 damage with winds possibly over 150mph! Near Goodman, storm damage is consistent with perhaps an EF2 tornado with winds 110-130mph. Fortunately there were great warnings and the storm was over rural areas for much of the time. Injuries were minimal and no deaths reported so far. There is no doubt about it. That storm up there was one of the worst I've seen in my 22 years of forecasting weather here in Mississippi.

The National Weather Service will conduct an "official evaluation" of the storm damage on Friday.