Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2000

F1 tornado, Sturdivant, Missouri, May 26, 2000

This F1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Bollinger County on May 26, 2000, touching down at 3:04 PM CDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $70,000 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 26, 2000
Touchdown
3:04 PM CDT (20:04 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$70,000
County
Bollinger County
Touchdown point
37.080, -90.020
Lift-off point
37.080, -90.000
Record number
199

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado caused moderate to heavy damage to one residence, and minor damage to a second residence. Tree limbs were speared into walls of the heavily damaged home. Three storage buildings and a horse barn were destroyed. A number of trees were uprooted.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:35 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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

8.1 hours before the tornado, 250 km from the path. May 26, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2000-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 398 joules per kilogram, CIN -152, lifted condensation level 1121 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 2000-05-26The 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 80 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 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
398 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-152 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2513 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1121 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.9 hours after it, 250 km from the path. May 27, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2000-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1692 joules per kilogram, CIN -31, lifted condensation level 1283 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 2000-05-27The 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 103 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
1692 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5168 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1283 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
103 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
175 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
15.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 26, 2000

21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2612:45 PM CDTF1Davidson, TN1.3500$20,000
May 263:20 PM CDTF0New Madrid, MO0.540$20,000
May 265:56 PM CDTF1Nodaway, MO1.050$50,000
May 265:58 PM CDTF0Haskell, TX0.110
May 266:10 PM CDTF1Benton, TN5.8500
May 266:30 PM CDTF2Calloway, KY1.53004$250,000
May 266:33 PM CDTF1Stewart, TN0.3100
May 266:41 PM CDTF1Stewart, TN0.2100
May 267:12 PM CDTF0Washita, OK2.620$1,000
May 267:30 PM CDTF0Phillips, KS0.620
May 267:30 PM CDTF0Throckmorton, TX0.220
May 267:47 PM CDTF0Caddo, OK0.120
May 267:57 PM CDTF0Caddo, OK2.5100
May 268:15 PM CDTF0Young, TX0.120
May 268:30 PM CDTF1Carroll, MO2.540$10,000
May 268:47 PM CDTF0Young, TX0.120
May 269:32 PM CDTF1Johnson, MO2.020$10,000
May 2611:13 PM CDTF0Scott, IL6.360
May 2611:14 PM CDTF0Scott, IL4.360
May 2611:36 PM CDTF1Morgan, IL1.5100$40,000
May 2612:50 AM CDTF1Lyon, KS8.050

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.