Gusty south winds of 40 to 50 MPH across southeast Missouri brought down some tree limbs and trees. A 5-foot diameter tree, estimated to be 100 feet tall, was blown down in Sikeston.
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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.
Gusty south winds of 40 to 50 MPH across southeast Missouri brought down some tree limbs and trees. A 5-foot diameter tree, estimated to be 100 feet tall, was blown down in Sikeston. Sikeston public works employees cleaned up over a dozen fallen trees. Peak wind gusts at the Cape Girardeau Airport were measured at 44 MPH. At Poplar Bluff, the strong winds caused extensive power outages that left about half the city without power. A severed power line created a small grass fire in Poplar Bluff. A sign was blown over onto a parked truck. A few trees and power lines were blown down in the city of Cape Girardeau.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Paducah, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 16, 3:50 AM CST, 5 hours 10 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY 450 AM CDT WED APR 16 2003 MOST IMPORTANT FORECAST CONCERN REMAINS THE TIMING AND INTENSITY OF CONVECTION LATE TODAY AND TONIGHT...IN ADDITION TO WIND SPEEDS TODAY. GENERALLY UTILIZED A BLEND OF ETA/GFS MODEL DATA FOR THE SHORT-TERM PORTION OF THE FORECAST. BOTH MODELS HAVE CERTAINLY COME INTO MUCH BETTER ALIGNMENT OVER THE PAST 24 HOURS AND ARE ADVERTISING A MUCH MORE POTENT SYSTEM FOR THE IMMEDIATE FORECAST AREA. FIRST FOR THIS MORNING...SATELLITE IMAGES AND TIME-HEIGHT SECTIONS INDICATE THE PASSAGE OF MAINLY MID AND HIGH-LEVEL CLOUDS. THESE CLOUDS MAY PRODUCE SOME ISOLATED LIGHT SHOWERS...BUT MOST OF THE AREA SHOULD REMAIN DRY. ALSO...STRONG WINDS ARE EXPECTED ONCE AGAIN TODAY...WITH 15 TO 30 MPH WINDS LIKELY...ESPECIALLY OVER THE WESTERN 2/3 OF THE AREA. BY THIS AFTERNOON...THE REGION SHOULD SEE A RESPECTABLE AMOUNT OF SUNSHINE. IN ADDITION...SURFACE DEW POINTS ARE PROGGED BY THE MESOETA TO APPROACH 60 DEGREES OVER SOUTHEAST MISSOURI...WITH MID TO UPPER 50S ELSEWHERE. FORECAST SOUNDINGS INDICATE THAT WIND PROFILES WILL BE FAVORABLE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS LATE THIS AFTERNOON. WITH THE APPROACH OF THE SURFACE LOW...BACKING LOW-LEVEL WINDS MAY FORCE SOME OF THESE STORMS TO ROTATE... ESPECIALLY WHERE SPC HAS INDICATED A MODERATE RISK FOR SEVERE WEATHER. FREEZING LEVELS ALSO INDICATE THE POTENTIAL FOR LARGE HAIL...ESPECIALLY WITH ANY STRONG UPDRAFTS. THE STORMS SHOULD FORM INTO A LINE THIS EVENING AND PUSH ACROSS THE REST OF THE AREA TONIGHT...WITH DAMAGING WIND THE PRIMARY HAZARD. THE LOW WILL BE SLOW TO DEPART THE REGION AS IT WEAKENS ON THURSDAY. THUS...MAINTAINED A SLIGHT CHANCE OR CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS IN THE NORTHERN AND EASTERN COUNTIES. A DRY PERIOD WILL FOLLOW THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY...BUT THE NEXT STORM SYSTEM WILL PRODUCE ANOTHER CHANCE FOR SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE WEEKEND. GENERALLY FOLLOWED A BLEND OF MAV/FWC MOS GUIDANCE WITH REGARD TO TEMPERATURES. .PAH...NONE. PRESLEY
ILZ075>078-080>094-INZ081-082-085>088-KYZ001>022-MOZ076-086-087-100- 107>112-114-171000- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY 540 AM CDT WED APR 16 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST MISSOURI...SOUTHERN ILLINOIS...SOUTHWEST INDIANA AND WESTERN KENTUCKY. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THERE IS MODERATE RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS ALL OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI...SOUTHWEST ILLINOIS...AND FAR WESTERN KENTUCKY. THE MODERATE RISK AREA IS PRIMARILY WEST OF A LINE FROM MOUNT VERNON AND MARION ILLINOIS...TO PADUCAH AND MAYFIELD KENTUCKY. A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS EXISTS OVER THE REST OF THE OUTLOOK AREA. A VIGOROUS AREA OF LOW PRESSURE WILL PUSH EAST FROM THE CENTRAL PLAINS TODAY...THEN ACROSS THE INTERSTATE 64 CORRIDOR OVERNIGHT. IN ADVANCE OF THE LOW AND ITS ASSOCIATED FRONT...INCREASING MOISTURE AND A DESTABILIZING ATMOSPHERE WILL LEAD TO THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP FIRST OVER SOUTHEAST MISSOURI AND SOUTHWEST ILLINOIS BY MID TO LATE AFTERNOON. THESE STORMS MAY EXHIBIT ROTATION AND WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WINDS...AND POSSIBLY EVEN TORNADOES. AS THE STORMS PUSH EAST THIS EVENING...THEY WILL LIKELY ORGANIZE INTO A SQUALL LINE...FROM WHICH DAMAGING WIND WILL BE THE PRIMARY HAZARD. IN ADDITION...STRONG WINDS AND CONTINUED DRY CONDITIONS WILL RESULT IN AN ELEVATED FIRE DANGER TODAY. REFERENCE THE RED FLAG WARNING PRODUCT /RFWPAH/ FOR MORE INFORMATION. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY THUNDERSTORMS WILL AGAIN BE POSSIBLE ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY...AS ANOTHER STORM SYSTEM MOVES THROUGH THE REGION. SEVERE WEATHER WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL LIKELY BE REQUESTED LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING OVER THE ENTIRE OUTLOOK AREA. PRESLEY
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 strong wind. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Missouri in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Missouri, April 2003
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: 5349548, 5349549, 5349550.