The tornado cut through the eastern edge of the city. Three businesses, including a popcorn factory and a tax service office, were heavily damaged.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS PAH wrote it up.
The tornado cut through the eastern edge of the city. Three businesses, including a popcorn factory and a tax service office, were heavily damaged. A welding company was destroyed. Several homes received light to moderate damage, mainly to roofs and windows. Uprooted trees fell on cars and power lines. Residents of the affected area remained without power for 12 to 24 hours. One person sustained minor cuts to her legs when a picture window was blown in. Outside the city limits, a barn was destroyed on Highway 105. This tornado struck the same spot where a young girl was killed by a tornado in the spring of 1981.
The Paducah radar (KPAH), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 15:07 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Missouri in 1996Every state in 1996This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Missouri, 1996Warnings in Missouri, January 1996
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5542601.