Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 1981

F4 tornado, Dunklin, New Madrid and Mississippi counties, Missouri, April 22, 1981

This F4 tornado ran 63.0 miles across Dunklin, New Madrid and Mississippi counties on April 22, 1981, touching down at 4:50 PM CST and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 32, and did $5 million to $50 million 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F4
Date
April 22, 1981
Touchdown
4:50 PM CST (22:50 UTC)
Path length
63.0 miles (101.4 km)
Path width
400 yards (366 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
32
Property damage
$5 million to $50 million
Counties
Dunklin, New Madrid and Mississippi counties
Touchdown point
36.600, -90.420
Lift-off point
36.900, -89.330
Record number
125

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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.

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 214 km from the path. April 22, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1981-04-22Temperature 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 -76886, lifted condensation level 3566 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, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1981-04-22The 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 60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-76886 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3566 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 214 km from the path. April 23, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1981-04-23Temperature 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 -98205, lifted condensation level 3558 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, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1981-04-23The 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 120 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-98205 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3558 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
252 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Popular Bluff (POF), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC69.866.2220° 3 kt1005.8

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1981 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 22, 1981

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 223:15 PM CSTF1Crane, TX1.030under $50
April 224:35 PM CSTF0Haskell, TX0.110
April 225:15 PM CSTF0Jefferson, OK19.910$500 to $5,000
April 225:30 PM CSTF1Scott, MO1.0100under $50
April 225:42 PM CSTF1Scott, MO1.0100under $50
April 225:54 PM CSTF3Jefferson, MO7.11001$500,000 to $5 million
April 225:56 PM CSTF0Madison, IL5.650$500 to $5,000
April 227:02 PM CSTF0Scott, MO1.0100under $50

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.