Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2005
F2 tornado, Gatewood, Missouri, November 5, 2005
This F2 tornado ran 7.4 miles across Ripley County on November 5, 2005, touching down at 10:39 PM CST and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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
- F2
- Date
- November 5, 2005
- Touchdown
- 10:39 PM CST (04:39 UTC)
- Path length
- 7.4 miles (11.9 km)
- Path width
- 250 yards (229 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $70,000
- County
- Ripley County
- Touchdown point
- 36.550, -91.150
- Lift-off point
- 36.550, -91.000
- Record number
- 536
What the Weather Service recorded
The tornado entered southwest Ripley County from Oregon County. A home and a barn received extensive damage in the community of Tucker, near where the tornado reached its peak intensity and width. Peak winds were estimated near 120 MPH. Average path width was 150 yards.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03:35 UTC | 04:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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.
Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z
4.7 hours before the tornado, 217 km from the path. November 6, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 794 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -118 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 727 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1289 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 167 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 300 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 1.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.1 K/km
Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z
7.3 hours after it, 217 km from the path. November 6, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -86526 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2166 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 53 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -60 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 97 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.3 K/km
The surface observations
Walnut Ridge (Awos) (ARG), 49 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:55 UTC | 71.6 | 57.2 | 190° 20 kt | 24 | 1007.8 | |
| 03:15 UTC | 71.6 | 57.2 | 190° 22 kt | 26 | 1007.8 | |
| 03:35 UTC | 71.6 | 57.2 | 180° 21 kt | 27 | 1007.1 | |
| 03:55 UTC | 71.6 | 57.2 | 190° 19 kt | 29 | 1007.5 | |
| 04:15 UTC | 71.6 | 57.2 | 180° 22 kt | 30 | 1006.8 | |
| 04:35 UTC | 71.6 | 57.2 | 190° 21 kt | 27 | 1006.8 | |
| 04:55 UTC | 71.6 | 57.2 | 190° 19 kt | 26 | 1007.8 | VCTS |
| 05:15 UTC | 71.6 | 57.2 | 190° 20 kt | 27 | 1007.5 | TS |
| 05:35 UTC | 71.6 | 59 | 290° 21 kt | 31 | 1009.5 | TS |
| 05:55 UTC | 66.2 | 60.8 | 280° 16 kt | 22 | 1010.2 | TS |
| 06:15 UTC | 64.4 | 57.2 | 290° 14 kt | 21 | 1010.5 | VCTS |
| 06:35 UTC | 64.4 | 55.4 | 290° 14 kt | 18 | 1010.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Memphis radar (KNQA), 172 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:39 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04:10 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 5 W Van Buren | Carter, MO | DIME SIZE HAIL REPORTED 5 MILES WEST OF VAN BUREN BY THE COUNTY SHERIFF. |
| 04:10 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 5 W Van Buren | Carter, MO | |
| 04:10 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Van Buren | Carter, MO | |
| 04:20 UTC | TORNADO 2 | 9 E Thayer | Oregon, MO | A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY REVEALED THAT AN F-2 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 9 MILES EAST OF THAYER NEAR HIGHWAY V. THE TORNADO CONTINUED ON A PATH 300 YARDS WIDE TO 3 MILES NORTHEAST OF MYRTLE. TWO MOBILE HOMES WER |
| 04:20 UTC | TORNADO 2 | 9 E Thayer | Oregon, MO | A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY REVEALED THAT AN F-2 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 9 MILES EAST OF THAYER. THIS TORNADO CONTINUED ON A PATH 300 YARDS WIDE TO 3 MILES NORTHEAST OF MYRTLE. TWO MOBILE HOMES WERE DESTROYED AN |
| 04:20 UTC | TORNADO | 9 E Thayer | Oregon, MO | A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY REVEALED THAT AN F-2 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 9 MILES EAST OF THAYER NEAR HIGHWAY V AND CONTINUED ON A PATH TO AROUND 3 MILES NORTHEAST OF MYRTLE. THIS TORNADO WAS IN A PATH 300 YARDS |
| 04:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Nw Myrtle | Oregon, MO | PRELIMINARY LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTS SUGGEST THAT A HOME WAS DESTROYED. THIS DAMAGE WILL BE SURVEYED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LATER THIS AFTERNOON. POTENTIAL TORNADO. |
| 04:34 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Myrtle | Oregon, MO | SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS DOWNED TREES IN THE COMMUNITY OF MYRTLE. |
| 04:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 E Myrtle | Oregon, MO | PRELIMINARY LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTS SUGGEST THAT A MOBILE HOME WAS DESTROYED ALONG COUNTY ROAD 287 NEAR ITS INTERSECTION WITH HIGHWAY 142. A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY WILL BE CONDUCTED IN THIS AREA LATER THIS |
| 04:40 UTC | TORNADO 2 | 3 E Myrtle | Oregon, MO | THIS IS AN EXTENSION OF THE TORNADO REPORTED 9 MILES EAST OF THAYER. A MOBILE HOME WAS DESTROYED BY THE F-2 TORNADO 3 MILES NORTHEAST OF MYRTLE. |
| 04:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 16 W Doniphan | Ripley, MO | JUST SOUTH OF TUCKER - ISOLATED EXTENSIVE WIND DAMAGE TO HOUSE, BARN, AND BOAT. SEVERAL TREES DOWN. |
| 04:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Tucker | Ripley, MO | EXTENSIVE FARM DAMAGE ON HWY 142. TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ALONG PORTIONS OF HWY Z. |
| 04:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Tucker | Ripley, MO | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN...WIND EST. 60 MPH PLUS |
| 05:00 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Tucker | Ripley, MO | BRIEF F0 TORNADO TOUCH DOWN. NO STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. TIME NOT DETERMINED. |
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 5, 2005
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 5 | 7:50 PM CST | F1 | Christian, MO | 17.0 | 530 | $500,000 | ||
| November 5 | 9:59 PM CST | F1 | Fulton, AR | 5.4 | 250 | 1 | ||
| November 5 | 10:20 PM CST | F2 | Oregon, MO | 9.0 | 300 | $1.5 million | ||
| November 5 | 10:41 PM CST | F2 | Sharp, AR | 4.8 | 350 | 3 |
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.