Late season tornadoes slam into Mississippi, killing at least four

Tornadoes unleashed by thunderstorms along the U.S. Gulf Coast ripped through southeastern Mississippi on Tuesday, killing at least four people, injuring many and causing extensive damage, local authorities said.

"We've got whole roofs lying in the road, people trapped in houses, cars flipped over," Marion County Sheriff Berkley Hall said. One woman was killed in a shopping strip in Columbia, a rural community of about 6,500 people, and another in a nearby trailer home, according to county coroner Norma Williamson.

"It's chaos over here," she said of the aftermath of the storm, which struck at about 2:30 p.m. local time.

One of the heaviest-hit areas was a commercial district along a U.S. Highway 98 bypass in the town of Columbia in Marion County, about 30 miles west of Hattiesburg, state emergency management spokesman Greg Flynn told Reuters. 

Two more storm-related fatalities were confirmed in Jones County to the northeast, where a separate tornado touched down an hour later, and both victims there were believed to have died in their homes, county Emergency Management spokeswoman Tammy Wells said.

Gov. Phil Bryant issued a state of emergency for Marion and Jones counties, hastening the availability of state resources needed for storm relief. His office said the storms knocked out power to more than 7,000 customers.

The twisters were spawned by thunderstorms that originated over south-central Louisiana, then tracked northeast before barreling through southeastern Mississippi, said Corey Mead, a meteorologist for the national Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

The unexpected, late-season storm was similar to those that hit the Midwest last year in November. Tornadoes flattened homes and knocked out power from Missouri to Kentucky, killing at least six, and an unusual swarm of tornadoes slammed into Nebraska, destroying the entire village of Pilger.

Scientists say warming temperatures due to climate change are causing more frequent and severe extreme weather, though its effect on tornadoes is less clear. Climate change opponents say global warming is making it more difficult to predict weather accurately.

Although tornadoes are occurring fewer days per year than they used to, a recent study has shown, they are forming at greater density and strength due to a warming world.

Al Jazeera and Reuters