Strong storms prompted the National Weather Service Offices to issue numerous tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings across Eastern and portions of Southern Mississippi Friday afternoon.

An abnormally warm and moist airmass was in place ahead of the cold front on Friday with morning temperatures in the 70s statewide.

The cold front would progress to a  position along the Interstate 55 with much colder air surging into Western Mississippi by noon, while areas in Eastern Mississippi were able to warm up even further with some areas around 80.

The daytime heating combined with added instability and plenty of shear to cause numerous cells to rotate and or intensify prompting numerous tornado warnings and several severe thunderstorm warnings across Eastern and portions of Southern Mississippi.

Portions of 33 counties were warned for severe weather Friday afternoon.

Tornado warned counties

Amite, Attala, Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Covington, Jasper, Jefferson Davis, Kemper, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Leake, Lincoln, Lowndes, Monroe, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Pike, Simpson, Smith, Walthall, and Winston.

Severe Thunderstorm warned counties:

Benton, Chickasaw, Itawamba, Lee, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Tippah, Tishomingo, and Union.

Fortunately, the airmass was not conducive for deep updrafts and many of the cells did not contain any lightning with no tornado touchdowns reported but several funnel clouds and wall clouds were reported with the warned storms. 

There was a report of 2 trees down in Pike County, where a funnel cloud was reported Friday afternoon, but overall no major damage was reported.

(Note: A majority of the tornado warned cells were not accompanied by any lightning or thunder. The radar indicated tornadoes were basically rotating showers--(typically seen with tropical systems))

Friday morning, extensive damage was reported in parts of Tunica in Northwestern Mississippi from what could have been a tornado. (Two houses were damaged, roofs were blown off and windows were blown out and 4 mobiles homes were damaged with roofs blown off with 1 mobile home completely destroyed)

Skycam shots  as ominous and threatening clouds progressed into and through portions of Eastern Mississippi, Friday afternoon.

Starkville-Tornado warned shower moves across the area 

Starkville-A Shelf Cloud progresses through the area, 15+ minutes after a tornado warned shower moved through the area

Mississippi State University-Tornado warned shower progresses across the area

                   Eastern Jackson-rain moves across the area

Philadelphia-Tornado warned shower passes nearby