MOBILE, ALABAMA (AP) – At least five tornadoes have been confirmed after a severe weather outbreak on Saturday along the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast.
No injuries or deaths were reported as damage surveys continued.
The National Weather Service said on Sunday that three tornadoes touched down in Jackson County, Mississippi, each with top winds estimated between 160 kilometres per hour (kph) and 175kph.
In Alabama, two weak tornadoes with winds of 115kph or less were confirmed, one in Theodore and one south of downtown Mobile. Surveyors were still looking on Sunday for evidence of tornadoes in Alabama, where multiple funnel clouds were captured on video or in pictures.
A Mississippi twister in Vancleave had a path of two kilometres damaging trees, a home and some outbuildings. A 4.5-kilometre tornado damaged trees in Moss Point before crossing a marsh and Interstate 10. A 1.6-kilometre tornado damaged light poles at a park in Big Point.
Surveyors concluded that damage to Gautier Middle School was caused by straight line winds. Wind damage was also reported farther west in Pass Christian and Diamondhead, Mississippi.
Although tornadoes are rare in most of the United States in late fall and winter, they are more common along the Gulf Coast in those seasons, when cold fronts collide with warm Gulf of Mexico air.
In Alabama, multiple people made images of a funnel cloud crossing a highway that runs across Mobile Bay between Mobile and Spanish Fort.
