Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2002

F2 tornado, Fredericktown, Missouri, April 24, 2002

This F2 tornado ran 9.0 miles across Madison County on April 24, 2002, touching down at 4:45 PM CDT and reaching 800 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 3.

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 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
April 24, 2002
Touchdown
4:45 PM CDT (21:45 UTC)
Path length
9.0 miles (14.5 km)
Path width
800 yards (732 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
3
County
Madison County
Touchdown point
37.420, -90.300
Lift-off point
37.430, -90.170
Record number
32

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado hit Madison County, first causing damage about 9 miles south of Fredericktown along Highway 67. A mobile home was destroyed and a frame house lost its roof. The tornado moved east through a heavily wooded area uprooting and damaging trees. The tornado reached Marquand, a small town of about 400 people, about 4 pm and caused considerable damage. Large trees were uprooted or snapped off and nearly every structure in a 3 to 4 block area was damaged. The Fire Station was completely destroyed as was a restaurant that was next to it. Several other frame buildings lost all or parts of their roofs. A State Emergency Management Agency damage assessment reported that 6 homes were destroyed, 12 homes suffered major damage, and 22 homes had minor damage. There were 3 minor injuries reported.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:57 UTC21:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
21:34 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
21:46 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningLSX
21:56 UTC22:15 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 Moderate 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 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

9.8 hours before the tornado, 290 km from the path. April 24, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2002-04-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 749 joules per kilogram, CIN -185, lifted condensation level 776 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 2002-04-24The 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 164 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
749 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-185 J/kg
Surface CAPE
370 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
776 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
164 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
225 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.2 hours after it, 290 km from the path. April 25, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2002-04-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1586 joules per kilogram, CIN -50, lifted condensation level 1113 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 2002-04-25The 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 78 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1586 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-50 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3078 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1113 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
110 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
4.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Farmington (FAM), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:55 UTC73.464.4210° 18 kt241008.1
20:15 UTC75.264.4210° 13 kt191007.8
20:35 UTC73.464.4200° 13 kt171007.5
20:55 UTC73.464.4220° 5 kt1007.5
21:15 UTC71.666.2270° 6 kt1008.1
21:35 UTC6864.4280° 3 kt211008.5
21:55 UTC69.864.4320° 12 kt1009.8
22:15 UTC6864.4320° 11 kt171011.2
22:35 UTC66.260.8330° 13 kt191011.9
22:55 UTC64.457.2330° 14 kt211012.5
23:15 UTC62.655.4320° 17 kt281013.2
23:35 UTC60.853.6320° 15 kt211014.2

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

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 135 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:43 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

The other tornadoes of April 24, 2002

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 243:55 PM CDTF1Washington, MO1.075
April 244:13 PM CDTF4Van Buren–Poplar Bluff tornado, MO40.565016$45 million
April 245:13 PM CDTF0Gallatin, IL0.120
April 245:21 PM CDTF1Butler, MO1.040$2,000
April 245:34 PM CDTF0Stoddard, MO0.140
April 246:16 PM CDTF0Stoddard, MO0.120
April 246:16 PM CDTF0Posey, IN0.130
April 248:00 PM CDTF0Pemiscot, MO0.325$10,000

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.