Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 1967

F2 tornado, Webster County, Missouri, April 23, 1967

This F2 tornado ran 11.1 miles across Webster County on April 23, 1967, touching down at 6:30 AM GMT-6 and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $5,000 to $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
April 23, 1967
Touchdown
6:30 AM GMT-6 (12:30 UTC)
Path length
11.1 miles (17.9 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Webster County
Touchdown point
37.170, -92.900
Lift-off point
37.170, -92.700
Record number
207

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Columbia Regiona, MO (KCOU), 12:00Z

0.5 hours before the tornado, 191 km from the path. April 23, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Columbia Regiona, MO at 12:00Z on 1967-04-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -17712, lifted condensation level 1778 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Columbia Regiona, MO at 12:00Z on 1967-04-23The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 193 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17712 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1778 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
193 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
443 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Columbia Regiona, MO (KCOU), 00:00Z

11.5 hours after it, 191 km from the path. April 24, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Columbia Regiona, MO at 00:00Z on 1967-04-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 463 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Columbia Regiona, MO at 00:00Z on 1967-04-24The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 139 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 91 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
463 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
91 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
139 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
564 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1967 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 23, 1967

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 236:20 AM GMT-6F1Webster, MO0.1101$500 to $5,000
April 236:30 AM GMT-6F1Greene, MO1.050$5,000 to $50,000
April 238:45 AM GMT-6F1Howell, MO0.550$5,000 to $50,000
April 2310:45 AM GMT-6F1Dunklin, MO0.3200$5,000 to $50,000
April 232:00 PM GMT-5F1Troup, GA20.827$500 to $5,000
April 234:00 PM GMT-5F0Pulaski, GA0.110$500 to $5,000
April 234:00 PM GMT-5F1Bleckley, GA2.033$500 to $5,000
April 238:00 PM GMT-6F1Shelby, TN0.1102$50,000 to $500,000
April 238:45 PM GMT-6F1Shelby, TN0.110$5,000 to $50,000
April 2310:00 PM GMT-6F1Prentiss, MS4.7100$500 to $5,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.