Two mile-wide tornadoes confirmed in Mississippi on Easter Sunday, according to NWS preliminary reports

SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI — The damage is still being surveyed by the National Weather Service, but preliminary reports show two massive tornadoes hit southern Mississippi Easter Sunday.

To help put this into perspective, the largest tornado ever recorded was 2.6 miles wide in Oklahoma back in May 2013.

The first tornado is now believed to be at least 2 miles wide starting in Jefferson Davis and ending in Clarke Counties. National Weather Service preliminary data ranked the tornado as an EF-4. It was on the ground for 67.77 miles and is still being investigated by the NWS Jackson.

RELATED: Mississippi family rides out deadly Easter Sunday tornado in concrete ‘safe room’

The second mile-wide tornado preliminary results show it was an EF-3 on the ground for 82.61 miles starting in Lawrence and ending in Jasper Counties and was 1 mile wide.

These results are preliminary and the NWS still has not released the estimated peak wind speeds, just the ratings. They might change the 2 mile-wide EF-4 to an EF-5 if they can find anything that got hit by the tornado that is considered EF-5 damage, but that is very rare. Less than 1% of tornadoes are EF-5. We can go a whole year without seeing one in the entire country.

© 2020 Cox Media Group