Coordinating physical and social science data collections for the 24 March 2023 Rolling Fork–Winona–Amory, MS, tornado event

As part of the Propagation, Evolution, and Rotation in Linear Storms (PERiLS) field project, the National Severe Storms Laboratory and several federal and academic partners deployed an armada of in-situ and ground-based remote sensing platforms to better understand the near-storm environments of tornadic quasi-linear convective systems. The area of interest for the PERiLS project included southeastern Missouri, Arkansa, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama.

On 24 March 2023, three tornadoes struck the communities of Rolling Fork/Silver City, Black Hawk/Winona, and Wren/Amory, Mississippi. These tornadoes resulted in 22 deaths and 225 injuries. Seventeen of the 22 fatalities were caused by the Rolling Fork/Silver City EF4 tornado, the most fatalities attributed to a single tornado in Mississippi in 52 years. Environmental data captured include lightning flash characteristics of the parent supercell from early evolution through the lifecycle of the Rolling Fork/Silver City tornado from the NSSL Deployable Lightning Mapping Array, thermodynamic and wind profiles ahead and in the vicinity of the Rolling Fork/Silver City tornado from a dense array of balloon soundings and ground-based profilers, and high-resolution NSSL Mobile Mesonet surface observations inside the parent supercell while the Rolling Fork/Silver City tornado was at peak intensity. NSSL and CIWRO researchers also spent several days performing damage surveys of the Rolling Fork/Silver City tornado, both in furtherance of PERiLS project objectives and to assist NWS Jackson in collecting damage information in a timely fashion from this historic tornado.

Given the extensive physical science data collected, NSSL and CIWRO researchers wanted to collect on-the-ground narratives from those impacted to more fully understand the event. The social science team at NSSL and CIWRO, in collaboration with Mississippi/Alabama Sea Grant, conducted 43 post-event interviews in several of the impacted communities. Interviews with NWS forecasters, emergency managers, broadcast meteorologists, and members of the public focused on the flow of information (including the reception and distribution of forecasts and warnings and the decision making process that followed) in the days, hours, and minutes prior to the tornadic event.