Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 1978

F1 tornado, Miller County, Missouri, May 28, 1978

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Miller County on May 28, 1978, touching down at 1:00 PM CDT and reaching 23 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5, 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 mphthis tornado

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    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
F1
Date
May 28, 1978
Touchdown
1:00 PM CDT (18:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
23 yards (21 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
5
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Miller County
Touchdown point
38.200, -92.670
Record number
342

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.

Springfield, MO (KUMN), 12:00Z

6.0 hours before the tornado, 176 km from the path. May 28, 1978.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 1978-05-28Temperature 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 -6681, lifted condensation level 1267 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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 1978-05-28The 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 66 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.1939Sfc1 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
-6681 J/kg
Surface CAPE
56 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1267 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KUMN), 00:00Z

6.0 hours after it, 176 km from the path. May 29, 1978.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 1978-05-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 55 joules per kilogram, CIN -176, lifted condensation level 1413 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 1978-05-29The 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 51 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
55 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-176 J/kg
Surface CAPE
390 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1413 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Jefferson City (JEF), 62 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:00 UTC83700° 0 kt1013.2
17:00 UTC8271140° 5 kt1013.2
18:00 UTC8471160° 6 kt1012.5
19:00 UTC8372160° 10 kt1011.5
19:06 UTC250° 20 kt301013.5
19:22 UTC320° 10 kt1013.2

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1978 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 28, 1978

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2812:50 PM CDTF0Keya Paha, NE4.920
May 284:15 PM CDTF0Renville, MN0.1300$50 to $500
May 285:20 PM EDTF0Sarasota, FL0.110$500 to $5,000
May 284:40 PM CDTF0Callahan, TX0.110
May 285:45 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.110
May 285:55 PM CDTF0Loup, NE0.720
May 286:00 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.110
May 286:03 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.110
May 286:30 PM CDTF0Rock, NE1.020
May 287:02 PM CDTF0Mitchell, TX3.360$500 to $5,000
May 288:15 PM CDTF0Scurry, TX1.030
May 289:40 PM CDTF0Garza, TX9.190
May 289:50 PM CDTF0Thurston, NE0.110

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.