F4 Gladstone tornado, Missouri, May 4, 2003

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

May 4, 2003

Touchdown

4:45 PM CDT (21:45 UTC)

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

13

Property damage

$31 million

County

Clay County

Touchdown point

39.230, -94.480

Lift-off point

39.230, -94.470

Record number

1038

A dry line moved into eastern Kansas on the afternoon of May 4th. Severe thunderstorms quickly erupted in the mid afternoon hours and marched east northeast into Missouri. Several of the severe thunderstorms became tornadic. A supercell thunderstorm produced 4 seperate tornadoes over the northland of Kansas City. The strongest tornadoes reached F4 in intensity and moved over southern portions of Platte and Clay counties. In Platte county 14 buildings were destroyed, 43 suffered major damage and 149 had minor damage. There were no fatalities or injuries and total damage was estimated at $33.95 million dollars.In Clay county total damages were estimated at $91 million dollars. Several hundred homes were either destroyed or had major or minor damage. No fatalities were observed but there were 19 injuries. This was the most significant tornado outbeak in the Kansas City Metropolitan area, since the Pleasant Hill Missouri outbreak in 1977.

Tornado moved in from Platte county and dissipated just before 169 highway south of I-29.

New tornado touchdown near Shady Lane and Antioch in Gladstone...with F0 to F1 damage to trees and roofs. The tornado intensified quickly, and damage of marginal F4 intensity was noted around one mile northeast of this area, near the intersection of NE 63rd Terrace and North Jackson. Another small area of marginal F4 intensity was noted just northeast of this location, in the Carriage Hills subdivision, just south of Pleasant Valley Road near North Brighton. Areas of F1 to F3 intensity damage was noted around these specific neighborhoods. The tornado continued northeast, based on air surveys, to just shy of Interstate 435 before dissipating.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:26 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 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 High Risk, with a 0.25 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:19 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 live radar over the trackEvery 2003 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

80 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 81 of them

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.