Early Storms May Have Prevented Tornado Outbreak

Mississippi's first high risk tornado environment in seven years may have fizzled out thanks to some early storms that developed ahead of the main squall line. Eric Carpenter at the National Weather Service in Jackson says the initial storms that affected mainly eastern Mississippi Wednesday may have sucked up some of the moisture and instability in the atmosphere and helped to prevent a major outbreak of tornadoes later in the day. Forecasters had been confident that the state would see some strong to violent long-tracked tornadoes, placing much of Mississippi under a Level 5 high risk. But it appears that only a handful of weaker tornadoes actually formed as the state dodged a potential weather disaster.