F4 Van Buren–Poplar Bluff tornado, Missouri, April 24, 2002

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

F4

Date

April 24, 2002

Touchdown

4:13 PM CDT (21:13 UTC)

Path length

40.5 miles (65.2 km)

Path width

650 yards (594 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

16

Property damage

$45 million

Counties

Carter and Butler counties

Touchdown point

37.000, -91.020

Lift-off point

36.800, -90.330

Record number

573

The tornado damage path began on the west side of Van Buren, right along the Current River, and crossed U.S. Route 60 very close to the Current River bridge. Two businesses in Van Buren, a lodge and a restaurant, were heavily damaged by F-2 intensity winds. The tornado travelled southeast across hilly and forested terrain until reaching the community of Ellsinore. Damage on the south side of Ellsinore was severe, where about 7 businesses were destroyed. Most of the damage at Ellsinore, which was inflicted by F-4 intensity winds, occurred along and near U.S. Highway 60. Across Carter County, 13 homes were destroyed and 12 homes suffered major damage. The tornado then moved into the Mark Twain National Forest and crossed into Butler County north of Highway 60.

The tornado crossed into Butler County in the Mark Twain National Forest, then proceded east-southeast, passing 6 to 7 miles north of Poplar Bluff. An upscale residential subdivision beyond the northern outskirts of Poplar Bluff, just off U.S. Route 67, received extensive damage. At least two well-constructed homes were levelled by peak winds estimated around 210 MPH. A total of 50 homes were destroyed in Butler County, 16 others received major damage, and 30 homes received minor damage. Most of the damaged homes were north of Poplar Bluff. Total damage figures for Butler County included timber losses in the national forest. The total number of injuries requiring hospital care that were directly attributed to the storm was 16. Five of the injured were admitted in critical condition. There were no fatalities from the storm. A woman who lived off U.S. Highway 67 took shelter in her bathtub. She reported that she and the bathtub were blown about 200 feet. She was reportedly found in the median of the highway. She was treated for a cracked sternum, broken ribs, a broken toe, and bruised lungs. In another incident on Highway 67, a large chunk of asphalt was blown through a vehicle's window, striking one of the people inside. The car was extensively damaged when it was blown off the road, but the 3 people inside received only cuts and bruises.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:11 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:37 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 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.

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 170 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:13 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 2002 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

8 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.