Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2002

F0 tornado, Hayti, Missouri, April 24, 2002

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Pemiscot County on April 24, 2002, touching down at 8:00 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
April 24, 2002
Touchdown
8:00 PM CDT (01:00 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Pemiscot County
Touchdown point
36.230, -89.720
Lift-off point
36.230, -89.720
Record number
72

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado touched down just east of Hayti and traveled a short distance. A few power lines were blown down.

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

The warnings

12 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:48 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:48 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningMEG

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:39 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), 00:00Z

1.0 hours before the tornado, 157 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

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z

11.0 hours after it, 157 km from the path. April 25, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z 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 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -80778, lifted condensation level 2130 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2002-04-25The 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 -175 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-80778 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2130 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-175 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-40 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Blytheville (HKA), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:53 UTC8262220° 12 kt221011.2
00:22 UTC82.462.6230° 15 kt201010.8TS
00:38 UTC82.462.6240° 11 kt181011.5
00:53 UTC8163240° 10 kt161011.9
01:25 UTC6864.4340° 15 kt251014.9VCTS RA BR
01:53 UTC6865360° 8 kt1014.9-TSRA
02:19 UTC6864.4360° 12 kt1016.3
02:53 UTC6559360° 17 kt241018.3

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

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:01 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 244:45 PM CDTF2Madison, MO9.08003
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

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.