Baron Services, Inc. - Baron Tornado Index

Baron Tornado Index (BTI):
Revolutionary Tornado Detection

Event 3: February 5, 2008
High BTI Value in Northern Mississippi Precedes 200-mile Path of Tornadoes

At 6:36pm, the BTI reached a value of 9. This occurred about 10 minutes before a tornado struck near Falkner, MS. The tornado left a broken 30-mile track with four segments as it moved across Tippah County.

		Graphic: National Weather Service
	Numerous tornadoes were reported over a 200-mile path over the next four hours, with 25 fatalities. This was the most deadly supercell of the entire outbreak. This storm also produced a tornado that led to an explosion and fire at the Columbia Gulf natural gas pumping station near Hartsville, TN. The explosion sent flames hundred of feet into the air and could be seen for miles. The BTI value in VIPIR was 8 at the time of the explosion. The Nashville NWS office determined that the Columbia Gulf tornado was a single long-track tornado with a 51-mile path.