Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2002

F2 tornado, Willow Spgs, Missouri, April 27, 2002

This F2 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Howell County on April 27, 2002, touching down at 10:40 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1.5 million 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 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 27, 2002
Touchdown
10:40 PM CDT (03:40 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1.5 million
County
Howell County
Touchdown point
37.020, -91.980
Lift-off point
37.020, -91.950
Record number
71

What the Weather Service recorded

An F2 tornado, plus associated destructive convergent winds around the tornadic circulation, caused extensive damage from 2 miles west of the Willow Springs Highway Patrol Headquarters, northeast to a mile and a half northeast of Willow Springs along Highway 378. Although the tornadic circulation was only 100 yards wide, it caused damage up to 300 yards wide. Large, century year old oak trees were uprooted throughout the area. West of the Willow Springs Highway Patrol Headquarters, a bass boat was thrown across two pastures and over two fences. A barn near this pasture was damaged. Troop G Headquarters had their 365' radio tower blown down. The tower landed on a home in the Hickory Hills Subdivision in Willow Springs. Four homes loss shingles and two homes completely lost their roofs. A church was rotated 45 degrees off its foundation and cemetery headstones were toppled. The worst damage occurred on a hilltop north of Willow Springs where a home was almost completely destroyed along with numerous outbuildings in a half mile area.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:26 UTC04:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSGF

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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:53 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.

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

3.7 hours before the tornado, 164 km from the path. April 28, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2002-04-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1053 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 905 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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2002-04-28The 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 256 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
1053 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1626 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
905 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
256 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
299 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.1
Supercell composite
9.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

8.3 hours after it, 164 km from the path. April 28, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2002-04-28Temperature 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 -80668, lifted condensation level 1390 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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2002-04-28The 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 -1 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 68 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
-80668 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1390 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
68 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
70 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

West Plains (UNO), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:53 UTC6864210° 10 kt1005.8BR
02:32 UTC6864.4200° 12 kt1005.8BR
02:53 UTC6965200° 10 kt181006.1BR
03:41 UTC69.864.4200° 14 kt1006.1VCTS BR
03:53 UTC7065200° 16 kt211006.1HZ
04:53 UTC6965210° 11 kt161006.4BR

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

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 27, 2002

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 273:06 PM CDTF1Saline, NE4.540
April 273:25 PM CDTF0Seward, NE0.120
April 274:10 PM CDTF0Atchison, KS0.525$30,000
April 274:41 PM CDTF0Fremont, IA0.020
April 274:50 PM CDTF0Fremont, IA0.020
April 274:58 PM CDTF0Mills, IA0.020
April 2710:35 PM CDTF1Saint Clair, IL1.7100
April 2712:05 AM CDTF1Clay, IL5.02005
April 2712:40 AM CDTF3Bollinger, MO4.0200116$4.0 million

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.