F1 tornado, New Hamburg, Missouri, October 26, 2004

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

October 26, 2004

Touchdown

5:09 PM CDT (22:09 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Scott County

Touchdown point

37.130, -89.600

Lift-off point

37.130, -89.600

Record number

1686

A supercell thunderstorm formed near a warm front, and then moved east along it. The storm produced two known tornadoes and some wind damage in Scott County, then crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois.

The very short track of this tornado was all in the northeast part of New Hamburg. The tornado touched down about 100 yards east of Highway A. Two homes received major roof damage, along with some structural damage. About 100 yards east of the two homes, a bed-and-breakfast business was destroyed. Another building lost its roof and two walls. A pole barn, a 100-year-old barn, and a wood silo were all destroyed. The barns contained antique farm equipment and a horse-drawn carriage that were destroyed. A dog was killed when the tornado destroyed the shed it was in. Several cars were damaged. Power was out to most or all of the town. A number of trees were topped. Peak winds were estimated near 110 MPH.

A trained spotter observed the weak tornado crossing Interstate 55. A few tree limbs were blown down. Due to the lack of damage along the tornado's path, the touchdown and lift-off points were estimated.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:09 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:39 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 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 Paducah radar (KPAH), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:10 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.

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

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

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

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.