Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2004
F0 tornado, Jonesburg, Missouri, May 27, 2004
This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Montgomery County on May 27, 2004, touching down at 6:40 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- May 27, 2004
- Touchdown
- 6:40 PM CDT (23:40 UTC)
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Montgomery County
- Touchdown point
- 38.850, -91.320
- Lift-off point
- 38.850, -91.320
- Record number
- 123
What the Weather Service recorded
A tornado hit Jonesburg causing some tree and roof damage. About a dozen buildings suffered roof damage from the tornado. There were also numerous trees and power lines down.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:04 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LSX |
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 20:09 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.
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z
11.7 hours before the tornado, 274 km from the path. May 27, 2004.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 577 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -123 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 23 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 465 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 119 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 147 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.3 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z
0.3 hours after it, 274 km from the path. May 28, 2004.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 651 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -12 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1730 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1078 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 49 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -105 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 52 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.4
- Supercell composite
- -3.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.8 K/km
The surface observations
St. Louis/Spirit (SUS), 61 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:54 UTC | 84 | 74 | 210° 14 kt | 19 | 999.7 | |
| 22:54 UTC | 83 | 73 | 220° 8 kt | 18 | 999.7 | |
| 23:19 UTC | 82.4 | 73.4 | 220° 7 kt | 999.7 | VCTS | |
| 23:54 UTC | 74 | 68 | 70° 8 kt | 1000 | VCTS | |
| 00:05 UTC | 71.6 | 68 | 100° 11 kt | 16 | 999.3 | VCTS -RA BR |
| 00:43 UTC | 68 | 68 | 10° 11 kt | 23 | 1004.4 | TSRA BR |
| 00:54 UTC | 68 | 67 | 20° 6 kt | 1004.4 | -TSRA | |
| 01:01 UTC | 68 | 68 | 20° 9 kt | 1005.1 | VCTS -RA | |
| 01:18 UTC | 68 | 66.2 | 0° 0 kt | 1005.8 | -TSRA | |
| 01:37 UTC | 68 | 66.2 | 350° 4 kt | 1005.8 | RA BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:42 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:52 UTC | HAIL 1 | Curryville | Pike, MO | |
| 21:30 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | New Melle | St. Charles, MO | ROTATION AT NEW MELLE...HWY Z. |
| 21:30 UTC | HAIL 1 | 3 N Bowling Green | Pike, MO | |
| 21:30 UTC | HAIL 1 | Bowling Green | Pike, MO | |
| 22:59 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Rush Hill | Audrain, MO | |
| 23:35 UTC | FLOOD | Bowling Green | Pike, MO | ONE FOOT WATER OVER BUSINESS 61 AND ROUTE Y. SEVERAL OTHER ROADS FLOODED. |
| 23:45 UTC | TORNADO | Jonesburg | Montgomery, MO | TORNADO IN JONESBURG REPORTED BY FIRE DEPARTMENT. |
| 23:46 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Jonesburg | Montgomery, MO | ROOF RIPPED OFF A STORE...POSSIBLY FROM TORNADO THAT WAS REPORTED EARLIER. |
| 23:46 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Jonesburg | Montgomery, MO | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN...COULD BE RELATED TO PREVIOUSLY REPORTED TORNADO. |
| 23:58 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Wright City | Warren, MO | |
| 00:05 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Wentzville | St. Charles, MO | ROTATION OBSERVED AT I-70 IN WENTZVILLE. |
| 00:30 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 2 W Defiance | St. Charles, MO | FUNNEL CLOUD AT KLONDIKE PARK. |
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 May 27, 2004
27 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 27 | 2:00 AM EDT | F1 | Pulaski, KY | 0.3 | 150 | 4 | $300,000 | |
| May 27 | 1:15 AM CDT | F0 | Crawford, KS | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| May 27 | 2:44 PM CDT | F0 | Daviess, MO | 2.0 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 2:54 PM CDT | F0 | Grundy, MO | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 3:07 PM CDT | F1 | Nolan, TX | 2.8 | 75 | $200,000 | ||
| May 27 | 3:11 PM CDT | F0 | Nolan, TX | 0.1 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| May 27 | 3:40 PM CDT | F0 | Taylor, TX | 0.1 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| May 27 | 3:00 PM PDT | F1 | Thurston, WA | 0.2 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| May 27 | 3:30 PM PDT | F0 | Clark, WA | 0.5 | 0 | |||
| May 27 | 6:35 PM EDT | F0 | Fayette, OH | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| May 27 | 6:45 PM EDT | F1 | Fayette, OH | 3.0 | 50 | 1 | $80,000 | |
| May 27 | 6:30 PM EST | F2 | Washington, IN | 25.9 | 150 | $2.5 million | ||
| May 27 | 6:40 PM CDT | F1 | Val Verde, TX | 4.0 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| May 27 | 6:47 PM CDT | F0 | Val Verde, TX | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| May 27 | 7:09 PM CDT | F0 | Val Verde, TX | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| May 27 | 7:19 PM CDT | F0 | Val Verde, TX | 0.8 | 30 | |||
| May 27 | 8:20 PM EDT | F1 | Brown, OH | 2.0 | 167 | $100,000 | ||
| May 27 | 7:30 PM CDT | F0 | Saint Charles, MO | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 7:30 PM CDT | F0 | Kinney, TX | 1.0 | 30 | |||
| May 27 | 7:31 PM CDT | F0 | Kinney, TX | 1.2 | 40 | |||
| May 27 | 7:35 PM CDT | F0 | Franklin, MO | 1.5 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 8:50 PM EDT | F2 | Henry, KY | 7.8 | 300 | 2 | $2.5 million | |
| May 27 | 8:55 PM EDT | F1 | Floyd, IN | 2.9 | 200 | $500,000 | ||
| May 27 | 8:10 PM CDT | F0 | Jefferson, MO | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 8:40 PM CDT | F0 | Saint Francois, MO | 0.2 | 40 | |||
| May 27 | 10:15 PM EDT | F3 | Fayette, KY | 3.0 | 100 | 6 | $7.5 million | |
| May 27 | 10:32 PM CDT | F1 | Henderson, KY | 0.2 | 50 | $40,000 |
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.