Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2001

F1 tornado, Saint Charles County, Missouri, April 10, 2001

This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Saint Charles County on April 10, 2001, touching down at 8:45 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5.0 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 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
April 10, 2001
Touchdown
8:45 PM CDT (01:45 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5.0 million
County
Saint Charles County
Touchdown point
38.800, -90.730
Lift-off point
38.800, -90.730
Record number
116

The warnings

18 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:27 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:27 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningLSX

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 00:45 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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

1.8 hours before the tornado, 237 km from the path. April 11, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2001-04-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 314 joules per kilogram, CIN -128, lifted condensation level 857 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2001-04-11The 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 156 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
314 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-128 J/kg
Surface CAPE
223 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
857 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
156 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
201 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

10.2 hours after it, 237 km from the path. April 11, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2001-04-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 732 joules per kilogram, CIN -137, lifted condensation level 716 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2001-04-11The 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 326 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
732 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-137 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
716 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
326 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
368 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 12 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:44 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 2001 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 10, 2001

28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 105:20 PM CDTF1Johnson, MO8.075$2.0 million
April 105:45 PM CDTF1Pettis, MO10.075$50,000
April 106:11 PM CDTF1Cooper, MO5.050$30,000
April 106:47 PM CDTF0Moniteau, MO0.125
April 107:20 PM CDTF1Callaway, MO3.010012$70,000
April 108:20 PM CDTF0Warren, MO0.150$20,000
April 108:30 PM CDTF0Saint Charles, MO4.050
April 109:35 PM CDTF1Madison, IL2.01001$5.0 million
April 109:42 PM CDTF1Kearny, KS5.1150$150,000
April 1010:22 PM CDTF1Carson, TX1.5100$70,000
April 1011:06 PM CDTF2Hansford, TX4.02002$750,000
April 1011:08 PM CDTF2Trego, KS40.1400$750,000
April 1011:35 PM CDTF1Rooks, KS14.0300$100,000
April 1011:40 PM CDTF2Beaver, OK12.0200$450,000
April 1011:45 PM CDTF0Rooks, KS3.0751$100,000
April 1012:00 AM CDTF1Beaver, OK6.0100$250,000
April 1012:05 AM CDTF1Osborne, KS9.0100$150,000
April 1012:10 AM CDTF2Ford, KS17.3380$190,000
April 1012:10 AM CDTF0Beaver, OK2.050$100,000
April 1012:17 AM CDTF2Wheeler, TX6.0200$150,000
April 1012:24 AM CDTF1Smith, KS4.0100$70,000
April 1012:25 AM CDTF1Osborne, KS2.075$50,000
April 1012:25 AM CDTF1Osborne, KS13.0200$160,000
April 1012:39 AM CDTF2Ford, KS10.0200$420,000
April 1012:46 AM CDTF1Wichita, TX4.5100$150,000
April 1012:48 AM CDTF1Ford, KS9.6150$170,000
April 1012:49 AM CDTF0Smith, KS3.550$10,000
April 1012:57 AM CDTF0Edwards, KS7.4100

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.