F0 tornado, Graham, Missouri, May 4, 2001

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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 4, 2001

Touchdown

7:25 PM CDT (00:25 UTC)

Path length

25.0 miles (40.2 km)

Path width

0 yards (0 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Nodaway County

Touchdown point

40.170, -95.030

Lift-off point

40.180, -95.050

Record number

742

Trained spotter reported brief tornado touchdown to the south of Graham. There were no injuries or damage reported.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:07 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:05 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.

NWS Kansas City, MO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at May 4, 3:51 PM CDT, 3 hours 34 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE KANSAS CITY/PLEASANT HILL MO
150 PM CDT FRI MAY 04 2001

WILL ISSUE FLOOD WATCH FOR ROUGHLY THE NORTHERN 2/3 OF CWA OF
TONIGHT INTO TO 6/ 6/ 7
.E OMFO3 010504 DH1849/URIRG/DIN60/ 192/ 294/ 226
.E OMFO3 010504 DH1849/UPIRG/DIN60/ 11/ 14/ 21
.E OMFO3 010504 DH1849/XRIRG/DIN60/ 20/ 13/ 17
.E OMFO3 010504 DH1849/PCIRG/DIN60/44.11/44.11/44.11
.E OMFO3 010504 DH1849/MTIRG/DIN60/ 80/ 82/ 89
.E DANO3 010504 DH1700/PCIRG/DIN15/10.19/10.19/10.19/10.19/10.19/10.19
.E1 10.19/10.19/10.19/10.19/10.19/10.19/10.19/10.19/10.19/10.19
.E DANO3 010504 DH1700/TAIRG/DIN15/ 56/ 59/ 58/ 59/ 60/ 60/ 62/ 63/ 62
.E1  62/ 63/ 63/ 63/ 64/ 64/ 65

In the hours before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE KANSAS CITY/PLEASANT HILL MO
656 PM CDT FRI MAY 04 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0648 PM    BRUNSWICK                 MO   .75 INCH HAIL
05/04/01   CHARITON                       REPORTED BY LAW
                                          ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE KANSAS CITY/PLEASANT HILL MO
703 PM CDT FRI MAY 04 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY- LOCATION....

0656 PM    5 N FILLMORE              MO   TORNADO
05/04/01   ANDREW                         TWO SMALL TORNADOES
                                          REPORTED BY PUBLIC.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE KANSAS CITY/PLEASANT HILL MO
708 PM CDT FRI MAY 04 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0616 PM    3 NW AMAZONIA             MO   TORNADO
05/04/01   ANDREW                         BRIEF TOUCHDOWN WITH 5
                                          MINUTES OF SWIRLING
                                          DEBRIS REPORTED BY
                                          STORM SPOTTER.

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.

St. Joseph (STJ), 46 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 166 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:22 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.