Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2005
F1 tornado, Caulfield to Pottersville, Missouri, November 27, 2005
From Caulfield to Pottersville, this F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Howell County on November 27, 2005, touching down at 6:46 PM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $70,000 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
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
- F1
- Date
- November 27, 2005
- Touchdown
- 6:46 PM CST (00:46 UTC)
- Path length
- 3.0 miles (4.8 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 2
- Property damage
- $70,000
- County
- Howell County
- Touchdown point
- 36.530, -92.150
- Lift-off point
- 36.550, -92.080
- Record number
- 1250
What the Weather Service recorded
This tornado is a continuation of the tornado in Ozark County Missouri. A National Weather Service survey indicated that an F-1 tornado tracked out of Ozark County into extreme southwest Howell County to 5 miles south southeast of Caulfield or three miles northeast of Bakersfield approximately one half mile west of the intersection of Highways YY and 562. The tornado width was 100 yards with a length of approximately four miles.
A National Weather Service survey indicated that an F-1 tornado touched down two and half miles southeast of Pottersville and tracked five miles to three and a half miles northeast of Pottersville. The tornado crossed Highway K three miles east of Pottersville. The tornado width was approximately 100 yards. The heaviest damage occurred approximately two miles east southeast of Pottersville or one mile south of Highway K where a frame house and a mobile home were heavily damaged. Two injuries occurred from the tornado striking the mobile home.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:07 UTC and running to 03:38 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:07 UTC | 03:38 UTC | Tornado Watch | SGF |
| 23:27 UTC | 05:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | SGF |
| 23:46 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | SGF |
| 03:00 UTC | 05:34 UTC | High Wind Watch | SGF |
| 05:34 UTC | 07:07 UTC | Wind Advisory | SGF |
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 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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
0.8 hours before the tornado, 155 km from the path. November 28, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 70 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -44 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 162 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1004 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 80 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 196 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 204 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.3 K/km
Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z
11.2 hours after it, 155 km from the path. November 28, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -2 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 6 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 939 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 52 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 121 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.9 K/km
The radar
The Springfield radar (KSGF), 138 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:44 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:40 UTC | TORNADO | Pottersville | Howell, MO | POSSIBLE TORNADO. PORCH BLOWN OFF A HOUSE. BARNED DAMAGED NEAR INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY K AND KK. |
| 00:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bakersfield | Ozark, MO | BARN BLOWN DOWN JUST EAST OF BAKERSFIELD. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE. A NWS SURVEY WILL BE CONDUCTED TODAY. |
| 01:09 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Pottersville | Howell, MO | *** 2 INJ *** 4 MOBILE HOMES BLOWN OFF FOUNDATION. ONE MOBILE HOME TOTALLY DESTROYED. OUTBUILDINGS DESTROYED. DEBRIS IN TREES AND TREES UPROOTED. DAMAGE WAS REPORTED IN THE POTTERSVILLE AREA...ALONG HIGHWAY AB. POSSIBLE |
| 01:12 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 S Caulfield | Howell, MO | FRONT PORCH AND BARN REPORTED DESTROYED NEAR YY HIGHWAY. RELAYED BY WEST PLAINS SHERIFF OFFICE. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE. STORM SURVEY MAY BE NEEDED. |
| 01:12 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 S Caulfield | Howell, MO | REPORT OF FRONT PORCH AND BARN DESTROYED NEAR YY HIGHWAY. RELAYED BY WEST PLAINS SHERIFF OFFICE. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE. STORM SURVEY MAY BE NEEDED. |
| 01:20 UTC | TORNADO | 8 Se West Plains | Howell, MO | POSSIBLE TORNADO. EMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED NUMEROUS TREES DOWN AND TWISTED. TWO TO THREE MOBILE HOMES OVERTURNED. TWO INJURIES REPORTED. EMS RESPONDING. |
| 02:06 UTC | TORNADO | Pottersville | Howell, MO | POSSIBLE TORNADO. PORCH BLOWN OFF A HOUSE. BARNED DAMAGED NEAR INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY K AND KK. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of November 27, 2005
64 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 27 | 1:48 PM CST | F0 | Marion, KS | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 1:48 PM CST | F0 | Marion, KS | 13.0 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 1:50 PM CST | F0 | Marion, KS | 2.0 | 50 | $1,000 | ||
| November 27 | 2:04 PM CST | F0 | Marion, KS | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 2:05 PM CST | F0 | Morris, KS | 0.3 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 2:12 PM CST | F1 | Morris, KS | 20.0 | 400 | $250,000 | ||
| November 27 | 2:32 PM CST | F0 | Dickinson, KS | 1.5 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 2:32 PM CST | F0 | Morris, KS | 6.0 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 2:35 PM CST | F0 | Lyon, KS | 1.0 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| November 27 | 2:48 PM CST | F0 | Montgomery, KS | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 2:58 PM CST | F0 | Morris, KS | 0.3 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 3:09 PM CST | F1 | Geary, KS | 2.0 | 300 | $900,000 | ||
| November 27 | 3:15 PM CST | F0 | Geary, KS | 0.3 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 3:21 PM CST | F0 | Geary, KS | 2.0 | 150 | $40,000 | ||
| November 27 | 3:28 PM CST | F0 | Riley, KS | 0.3 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 3:32 PM CST | F0 | Riley, KS | 0.3 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| November 27 | 3:40 PM CST | F1 | Yell, AR | 4.5 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 3:49 PM CST | F0 | Riley, KS | 0.3 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 3:57 PM CST | F0 | Yell, AR | 2.7 | 40 | |||
| November 27 | 4:06 PM CST | F1 | Neosho, KS | 6.0 | 80 | $120,000 | ||
| November 27 | 4:22 PM CST | F0 | Allen, KS | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 4:25 PM CST | F1 | Pike, AR | 13.8 | 40 | 1 | ||
| November 27 | 4:42 PM CST | F1 | Montgomery, AR | 3.2 | 40 | |||
| November 27 | 4:49 PM CST | F1 | Montgomery, AR | 4.5 | 40 | |||
| November 27 | 4:56 PM CST | F1 | Garland, AR | 3.5 | 40 | |||
| November 27 | 5:10 PM CST | F1 | Garland, AR | 1.2 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 5:19 PM CST | F0 | Jasper, MO | 0.0 | 75 | |||
| November 27 | 5:20 PM CST | F2 | Hot Spring, AR | 4.2 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 5:23 PM CST | F1 | Van Buren, AR | 2.8 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 5:26 PM CST | F2 | Garland, AR | 13.8 | 100 | 1 | ||
| November 27 | 5:27 PM CST | F1 | Searcy, AR | 2.7 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 5:30 PM CST | F1 | Garland, AR | 2.1 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 5:32 PM CST | F1 | Saline, AR | 6.1 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 5:37 PM CST | F2 | Conway, AR | 3.9 | 250 | |||
| November 27 | 5:41 PM CST | F3 | Perry, AR | 19.0 | 800 | $4.0 million | ||
| November 27 | 5:42 PM CST | F2 | Pope, AR | 2.3 | 250 | |||
| November 27 | 5:44 PM CST | F1 | Clay, MO | 11.0 | 75 | $1.2 million | ||
| November 27 | 5:45 PM CST | F2 | Conway, AR | 11.8 | 250 | |||
| November 27 | 5:59 PM CST | F1 | Ray, MO | 2.0 | 75 | $30,000 | ||
| November 27 | 6:00 PM CST | F3 | Conway, AR | 2.0 | 150 | |||
| November 27 | 6:09 PM CST | F3 | Conway, AR | 15.0 | 700 | 1 | 8 | |
| November 27 | 6:15 PM CST | F1 | Baxter, AR | 3.7 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 6:25 PM CST | F1 | Perry, AR | 0.8 | 25 | |||
| November 27 | 6:26 PM CST | F1 | Pulaski, AR | 2.2 | 25 | |||
| November 27 | 6:27 PM CST | F2 | Conway, AR | 6.1 | 600 | |||
| November 27 | 6:34 PM CST | F2 | Faulkner, AR | 2.6 | 400 | |||
| November 27 | 6:37 PM CST | F2 | Van Buren, AR | 13.1 | 400 | |||
| November 27 | 6:40 PM CST | F1 | Fulton, AR | 1.3 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 6:42 PM CST | F1 | Ozark, MO | 1.0 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 6:55 PM CST | F1 | Van Buren, AR | 3.7 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 6:56 PM CST | F1 | Howell, MO | 5.0 | 100 | 2 | $70,000 | |
| November 27 | 6:59 PM CST | F1 | Faulkner, AR | 7.7 | 75 | |||
| November 27 | 7:02 PM CST | F1 | Cleburne, AR | 2.7 | 50 | |||
| November 27 | 7:11 PM CST | F0 | Faulkner, AR | 4.0 | 40 | |||
| November 27 | 7:19 PM CST | F2 | Van Buren, AR | 0.8 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 7:20 PM CST | F2 | Cleburne, AR | 9.2 | 100 | 1 | ||
| November 27 | 7:47 PM CST | F0 | Cleburne, AR | 1.2 | 25 | |||
| November 27 | 7:55 PM CST | F1 | Izard, AR | 5.8 | 150 | |||
| November 27 | 8:01 PM CST | F1 | Sharp, AR | 0.4 | 100 | |||
| November 27 | 8:02 PM CST | F1 | Fulton, AR | 5.8 | 100 |
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.