Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 1997

F0 tornado, Howardville to Conran, Missouri, July 16, 1997

From Howardville to Conran, this F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across New Madrid County on July 16, 1997, touching down at 1:15 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
July 16, 1997
Touchdown
1:15 PM CDT (18:15 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
New Madrid County
Touchdown point
36.480, -89.650
Lift-off point
36.480, -89.650
Record number
430

What the Weather Service recorded

A nearly stationary tornado was observed for a few minutes. Several law enforcement personnel confirmed the tornado. The brief tornado, which was not associated with any severe thunderstorms, caused no damage over open farmland.

Law enforcement officials reported a brief touchdown. The tornado was not associated with a severe thunderstorm. No damage was observed.

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

The warnings

23 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:52 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:52 UTC18:30 UTCTornado WarningPAH
18:28 UTC18:45 UTCTornado WarningPAH

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

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

6.3 hours before the tornado, 185 km from the path. July 16, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1997-07-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2295 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 955 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, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1997-07-16The 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 -12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 14 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
2295 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2124 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
955 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-21 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.7 hours after it, 185 km from the path. July 17, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1997-07-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2378 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 1338 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, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1997-07-17The 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 27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 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
2378 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4635 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1338 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Dyersburg(Awos) (DYR), 58 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:50 UTC87.873.4180° 7 kt1019
17:50 UTC89.671.6180° 8 kt1018.6
18:50 UTC89.671.6170° 8 kt1018.3
19:50 UTC89.669.8190° 6 kt1017.6

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

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:16 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 16, 1997

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 1612:47 PM CDTF0New Madrid, MO0.230
July 163:38 PM CDTF2Lincoln, WI3.4100$1.5 million
July 164:00 PM CDTF0Marathon, WI0.173$10,000
July 164:00 PM CDTF0Marathon, WI0.213$200,000
July 164:09 PM CDTF1Marathon, WI0.250$100,000
July 164:20 PM CDTF0Marathon, WI0.273$1,000
July 165:41 PM CDTF0Waushara, WI0.110
July 167:15 PM CDTF0Brazoria, TX0.520$50,000
July 167:25 PM CDTF0Hughes, SD0.530
July 167:45 PM CDTF1Hughes, SD2.073

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.