VIDEO: National Weather Service Findings

CALHOUN COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – National Weather Service crews are out surveying towns to determine exactly what ripped through their area.

Damage can tell the weather experts what they need to know, but it’s not as easy it may seem.

Dentontown, right outside of Slate Springs, suffered the most damage in the county.

The most damaged areas are the ones that grab the attention of the National Weather Service crews.

“We’re just north of the Calhoun County line, north of the weather service in Jackson’s area, so this is about as far south as our radar coverage goes and we forecast and warn for,” says Memphis National Weather Service Meteorologist, Scott McNeil.

The first thing they do when they get to their destinations, are find residents impacted by the storm’s paths.

“They asked me about the direction I thought the wind was coming and everything and the only thing I knew was Sunday morning, when we were getting ready to go to church, we noticed on the weather station that there was a tornado spotted at Kilmichael,” says resident, Kenny Pryor.

Trees ripped in half, equipment thrown like baseballs, and debris everywhere, is what they’ll determine two things from.

“First of all, whether it was straight-line winds, or tornadic, so we see some spin and there’s evidence that we will be looking for that there is a spin, and then if there was a tornado, and even if it was straight-line winds, we’re sort of trying to estimate the wind speeds with that tornado, or the wind speeds,” says Memphis National Weather Service Meteorologist, Tom Salem.

Seasoned Meteorologist Scott Mcneil says Sunday’s storms were particularly unusual.

“We had a potential tornado embedded within a lot of rain and the signatures on radar were not classic. They were very unusual, you know, unusual and sort of suttle and so it was a difficult warning day.”

Depending on the amount of destruction and size of the damaged area, determines how long it can take for the scientists to figure out what ripped through the town.

“Sometimes it’s real obvious because there’s certain things that you see and it’s like okay, I know what it is and then I can rate it fairly easy, but then other times, you’re just sort of scratching your head because we weren’t here when it happened,” says Salem.

Meteorologists say today’s survey suggests tornadic damage in Calhoun County.

They’ll release its strength tomorrow, but say it will either be EF-0 or EF-1.