Tornadoes in Columbus, Mississippi: 58 Since 1951, Ranked
The Columbus area has recorded 58 tornadoes since 1951 — just two deaths, never an F4, and one tornado that changed everything: the EF3 that tore straight through downtown on February 23, 2019.
The Columbus / Lowndes County area has recorded 58 tornadoes since 1951, causing 2 deaths and 119 injuries, according to the NOAA Storm Prediction Center archive. Five reached F3 — the strongest on record — but Columbus has never recorded an F4 or F5. For a small city in one of the deadliest tornado states in America, that is a remarkably light record. Then came February 23, 2019.
That afternoon an EF3 tornado moved directly through downtown Columbus, killing one person, injuring 11 and leveling landmarks including the Sims Community Center. It is the deadliest and most destructive tornado in the area’s recorded history — and it landed in February, not spring, which is the whole story of how tornadoes work in this part of Mississippi. Here is the full ranked record.
The most significant Columbus-area tornadoes
Ranked by intensity, then deaths and injuries, from the SPC record for the Columbus / Lowndes County box. Location labels are derived from touchdown coordinates. Columbus has only ever recorded five F3 tornadoes and no F4 or F5 — so this table is essentially the complete list of the area’s strongest storms.
| Date | Area | Rating | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 23, 2019 | Downtown Columbus Deadliest and most destructive on record — a direct hit on downtown. | EF3 | 1 |
| Nov 10, 2002 | Southwest of Columbus Most injuries on record; part of the Veterans Day 2002 outbreak. ~29-mile track. | F3 | 0 |
| Jan 10, 2008 | North of Columbus Widest on record — ~1.4 miles (2,500 yards) — and a mid-winter tornado. | F3 | 0 |
| Mar 31, 1962 | Columbus area 880-yard-wide track. | F3 | 0 |
| Mar 17, 1965 | Columbus area 8.5-mile path. | F3 | 0 |
| Mar 20, 1980 | Columbus area The only other fatal tornado in the local record. | F1 | 1 |
For how northeast Mississippi fits the wider Southern threat, see the Dixie Alley deadliest-tornado zone and the national deadliest-tornadoes ranking.
February 23, 2019: the downtown EF3
Around 5:15 p.m. on February 23, 2019, an EF3 tornado with winds near 137 mph touched down and tracked about 10 miles directly across Columbus, hitting the downtown and southern side of the city. It killed one person — Ashley Glynell Pounds, 41, who was in a building that collapsed on Tuscaloosa Road — injured 11, and destroyed the Sims Community Center along with a brick grocery store that was nearly leveled. Damage was estimated near $2 million. NWS Jackson and local reporting attribute a second, indirect death five days later, when a 77-year-old man fell from a roof he was helping repair.
In our SPC data, that single tornado accounts for one of only two deaths and about a tenth of all the injuries the Columbus area has ever recorded. It is the definition of a low-frequency, high-consequence hit: an ordinary-looking small city that had gone 68 years without a killer F3, struck head-on in the middle of downtown. You can pull the exact conditions for that afternoon on our historical weather lookup.
Columbus has two tornado seasons
The Plains get one spring peak. Columbus gets two windows. March and April are the busiest months, but look at the cold end of the calendar: November, December and February together rival the spring. Northeast Mississippi is close enough to the Gulf that a warm, sheared winter setup can spin up tornadoes when the Plains are frozen — which is exactly when the deadly 2019 tornado and the wide January 2008 F3 struck. Monthly counts from the SPC data:
That winter secondary season is a Dixie Alley trait the Great Plains do not share. Compare it with the spring-only pattern on Oklahoma’s tornado page, or with fellow Southern city Nashville.
Columbus sits in one of the deadliest tornado states in America
The Columbus record only looks quiet until you place it in Mississippi. Statewide, the SPC database lists 2,731 tornadoes since 1950 and 500 deaths — among the highest tornado death tolls of any state, and four of them F5s, even though Mississippi ranks nowhere near the top for tornado count. That gap is the whole identity of Dixie Alley: fewer tornadoes than Texas or Kansas, but far deadlier ones, because they come after dark, move fast, hide in rain, and cross densely wooded, densely settled ground where people never see them coming.
Columbus’s two deaths are a tiny slice of that 500 — the city has been genuinely lucky. But the 2019 EF3 is a reminder that “rarely hit” is not “never hit,” and that when a Mississippi tornado does find a town, it tends to be a bad one. See how the state stacks up in our ranking of every state by tornadoes, and the deeper Mississippi picture on the Mississippi weather page and Mississippi records.
Frequently asked questions
What was the worst tornado in Columbus, Mississippi history?
The February 23, 2019 EF3 is the deadliest and most destructive tornado in the Columbus record. It moved directly through downtown Columbus around 5:15 p.m. with winds near 137 mph, killed one person and injured 11 (NOAA SPC), and destroyed the Sims Community Center; NWS Jackson and local reporting attribute a second, indirect death days later. It is the only F3-or-stronger tornado to kill anyone in the area on record.
How many tornadoes has Columbus, Mississippi had?
The NOAA SPC database records 58 tornadoes in the Columbus / Lowndes County touchdown box between 1951 and 2024, causing 2 deaths and 119 injuries. Five were rated F3 — the strongest on record — and Columbus has never recorded an F4 or F5. Both fatal tornadoes were the 2019 downtown EF3 and a 1980 F1.
Did a tornado hit downtown Columbus, Mississippi?
Yes. On February 23, 2019, an EF3 tornado tracked about 10 miles directly across Columbus, striking the downtown area, the Sims Community Center and a brick grocery store on Tuscaloosa Road. Direct hits on a downtown are rare for any city, and it remains the clearest example in the local record.
When is tornado season in Columbus, Mississippi?
Columbus peaks in spring — March and April are the busiest months — but it has a real cool-season threat too. November, December and February together rival the spring, and the deadly 2019 tornado struck in February. That dual spring/winter pattern is a Dixie Alley signature the Great Plains do not share.
Explore the tornado record yourself
Every figure here comes from the NOAA SPC database, which we've made browsable. Map any state, filter by rating, or read the stories behind the record books: