Devastating Mississippi storm photos and videos, and the reason behind
An unusual and robust Mississippi storm has shaken storm chasers and meteorologists with the destruction it caused.
At least 25 people are dead in the state, with search and rescue teams continuing into Sunday.
Why was the Mississippi storm so destructive?
The tornado looked huge as it approached the small village of Rolling Fork, with a few calling it a “wedge tornado.” The National Weather Service calculates the storm lasted almost an hour.
“I can’t just get over with what I saw,” said Stephanie Cox, a tornado chaser who lived in Oklahoma and saw the storm as it moved into Mississippi.
Ms Cox told the press that she initially required help deciding how large or powerful the storm would be.
But she heard a tremendous roar, followed by a lightning strike that edified what she defined as a “monster” of a tornado.
See photos below:
“I’ve never seen one that fierce or heard one only make that roaring sound – that sounds like a train horn coming straight at you, ” she expressed.
The NWS estimates the storm, which started pounding western Mississippi on Friday evening after it began over the Mississippi river, went 59 miles (94 kilometres) with a width of three-quarters of a mile and lasted almost an hour and 10 minutes.
It grew from a supercell hurricane – a rotating storm where the updraft and the downdraft are divided. It is caused by warm, dangerous air near the ground and changing pace and direction of the wind at rising heights.
According to the NWS, these hurricanes are some of the least expected but among the most dangerous. Supercell storms are even known to sustain themselves for longer than expected.
“The circumstances were ideal for the storm to last a very long time, and that is usually not expected,” stated Lance Perrilloux, a meteorologist with the NWS in Jackson, Mississippi.
