Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2002

F1 tornado, Charleston, Missouri, April 20, 2002

This F1 tornado ran 1.8 miles across Mississippi County on April 20, 2002, touching down at 4:20 PM CDT and reaching 100 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
April 20, 2002
Touchdown
4:20 PM CDT (21:20 UTC)
Path length
1.8 miles (2.9 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$70,000
County
Mississippi County
Touchdown point
36.920, -89.330
Lift-off point
36.900, -89.320
Record number
56

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado path extended from Interstate 57 on the east side of Charleston to about 1.8 miles southeast of Charleston. Peak wind speeds in the tornado were estimated at 100 MPH. An anchored mobile home was lifted and rolled, destroying it. The residents of the mobile home escaped injury by abandoning it moments before the tornado struck. Stationary automobiles were moved about. Several mature hardwood trees were snapped off or uprooted. Minor damage occurred to outbuildings and metal pole-framed structures on the southeast edge of Charleston.

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

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:14 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:14 UTC21:45 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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 21:09 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

9.3 hours before the tornado, 238 km from the path. April 20, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2002-04-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 179 joules per kilogram, CIN -82, lifted condensation level 994 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 2002-04-20The 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 58 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
179 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-82 J/kg
Surface CAPE
214 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
994 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.7 hours after it, 238 km from the path. April 21, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2002-04-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 142 joules per kilogram, CIN -184, lifted condensation level 1483 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 2002-04-21The 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 18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
142 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-184 J/kg
Surface CAPE
227 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1483 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Cape Girardeau (CGI), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:53 UTC7867270° 5 kt1013.9
20:01 UTC7768270° 4 kt1013.5VCTS -RA
20:42 UTC71.666.2290° 13 kt1013.9VCTS -RA
20:53 UTC7167300° 8 kt1013.9VCTS -RA
21:03 UTC71.666.2340° 7 kt1013.5-RA
21:53 UTC7167130° 3 kt1013.2
22:53 UTC736970° 7 kt1011.9

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

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:21 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 2002 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

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.