Overview and Early Analysis of NSSL and CIWRO Observations of the 24 March 2023 Rolling Fork, Mississippi, Tornadic Storm and Environmental Evolution during PERiLS 2023 IOP 3

A violent tornado directly impacted the town of Rolling Fork, MS, in the evening hours of 24 March 2023, killing 17 people and damaging hundreds of structures. Crews and assets participating in the Propagation, Evolution, and Rotation in Linear Storms (PERiLS) field campaign were deployed across the southern Mississippi Delta region, including near Rolling Fork, as part of the third intensive observing period (IOP 3) of the 2023 phase of the campaign. These crews included numerous scientists from NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) and the University of Oklahoma’s Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (OU CIWRO). Crews deployed several in-situ and ground-based remote sensing platforms, including the NOAA X-band polarimetric radar (NOXP), NSSL Mobile Mesonets (MMs), the NSSL Mobile Lightning Mapping Array (LMA), the NSSL mobile lidar facility, the OU CIWRO CopterSonde uncrewed aerial system (UAS) in-situ profiling instruments, multiple radiosonde systems, and ground and UAS damage survey teams.

This presentation will highlight the observations gathered by NSSL facilities ahead of, during, and in the wake of the Rolling Fork tornadic storm. Topics highlighted will include the rapid environmental evolution observed within a few hours of tornadogenesis by lidar, soundings, and CopterSondes; radar and lightning observations of the supercell evolution leading up to tornadogenesis; in-situ observations from the forward-flank and rear-flank regions of the supercell; and observations from UAS and ground damage surveys along the tornado track.