Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2004

F2 tornado, Ellsinore, Missouri, April 24, 2004

This F2 tornado ran 7.6 miles across Carter County on April 24, 2004, touching down at 5:12 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5, and did $600,000 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 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, 2004
Touchdown
5:12 PM CDT (22:12 UTC)
Path length
7.6 miles (12.2 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
5
Property damage
$600,000
County
Carter County
Touchdown point
36.900, -90.780
Lift-off point
37.000, -90.720
Record number
783

What the Weather Service recorded

A warm front extending across southeast Missouri was the focus for tornadic thunderstorms. The storms developed during the warmth of the afternoon and produced a few tornadoes, isolated dime size hail, and several reports of flash flooding.

The tornado touched down about one mile south of the intersection of U.S. Highway 60 and County Highway 233 in eastern Carter County. The tornado tracked north-northeast, passing only about a mile west of the town of Ellsinore. The tornado damage path ended on County Road 365 less than one half mile before reaching the Wayne County line. Peak winds in the tornado were estimated at 150 MPH. Most of the injured were in a mobile home on the north side of U.S. Highway 60. Their mobile home was picked up and thrown into some trees. One person was critically injured. The critically injured person was paralyzed when her back and neck was broken, and she was airlifted to a St. Louis area hospital. Another person received a broken arm, and most of the remaining injuries were scrapes and cuts. The tornado destroyed a total of three mobile homes, a storage facility, and numerous sheds. Two homes and one business were severely damaged. Numerous vehicles were damaged.

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.

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 20:04 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

10.2 hours before the tornado, 247 km from the path. April 24, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2004-04-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 535 joules per kilogram, CIN -51, lifted condensation level 671 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 2004-04-24The 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 255 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.193958Sfc1 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
535 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-51 J/kg
Surface CAPE
78 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
671 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
255 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
243 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.8 hours after it, 247 km from the path. April 25, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2004-04-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 37 joules per kilogram, CIN -114, lifted condensation level 884 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 2004-04-25The 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 91 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
37 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-114 J/kg
Surface CAPE
40 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
884 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Popular Bluff (POF), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:55 UTC7469200° 8 kt1012.5
21:11 UTC73.469.8190° 9 kt1012.2
21:55 UTC7569200° 9 kt1011.9
22:55 UTC7369180° 7 kt1011.5
23:55 UTC6964310° 18 kt271011.9
00:02 UTC6864.4290° 10 kt271012.2-RA
00:29 UTC66.264.4300° 15 kt1012.5RA BR
00:38 UTC66.266.2290° 15 kt201012.9-RA
00:46 UTC66.266.2270° 15 kt221013.5+RA BR

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

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 176 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:11 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:20 UTCTORNADO13 Ese Van BurenCarter, MO*** 6 INJ *** FOLLOWUP REPORTS OF EARLIER REPORT OF TORNADO IN THE TOWN OF ELSINORE. HOUSE DAMAGE, AND TREES DOWN.
22:20 UTCTORNADO14 Ese Van BurenCarter, MOTORNADO REPORTED 1 MILE WEST OF ELSINORE ON HWY 60.
22:42 UTCHAIL 0.756 W NaylorRipley, MO
23:00 UTCTORNADO7 Ne PiedmontWayne, MOPOSSIBLE TORNADO REPORTED IN THE TOWN OF PATTERSON WITH ELECTRICAL LINES DOWN AND TREES DOWN ON OLD HWY 34.
23:00 UTCTORNADO7 Ne PiedmontWayne, MOPOSSIBLE TORNADO REPORTED IN THE TOWN OF PATTERSON WITH TREES DOWN, ROOF DAMAGE AND POWER LINES DOWN.
00:45 UTCFLASH FLOODDoniphanRipley, MOEARLIER REPORTS OF FLOODING ACROSS THE COUNTY. WATER WAS STILL OVER BRIDGES AND SOME GRAVEL ROADS STILL UNDER WATER BUT WATER HAS RECEDED.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 24, 2004

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 2412:00 PM CDTF0Conway, AR1.225
April 2412:17 PM CDTF0Van Buren, AR2.825
April 244:12 PM CDTF0Lonoke, AR2.325
April 245:52 PM CDTF1Wayne, MO4.0100$100,000
April 247:15 PM CDTF0Clay, MO0.120$10,000
April 247:40 PM CDTF0Atchison, MO0.220
April 247:47 PM CDTF2Cape Girardeau, MO5.4200$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.