Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2006

F0 tornado, Braggadocio to Steele, Missouri, April 25, 2006

From Braggadocio to Steele, this F0 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Pemiscot County on April 25, 2006, touching down at 7:10 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
April 25, 2006
Touchdown
7:10 PM CDT (00:10 UTC)
Path length
7.0 miles (11.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Pemiscot County
Touchdown point
36.100, -89.830
Lift-off point
36.070, -89.700
Record number
418

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down 5 miles northwest of Braggadocio and traveled southeast to 3 miles southeast of Caruthersville. The tornado was not continuous as it lifted up and touched down several times. The tornado mainly affected agricultural interests and primarily produced minor damage. A weak framed house was destroyed just northwest of Braggadocio. The tornado then continued southeast into Caruthersville and affected areas one half mile south of where the April 2nd, 2006 F3 tornado occurred. A few homes suffered minor damage. A few sheds and barns were also destroyed. Straight line wind damage was also mixed in with the tornado damage.

A tornado touched down near Steele and moved southeast to Cottonwood Point. The tornado track was not continuous as it lifted up and touched down several times. The tornado mainly affected agricultural interests, damaging numerous corn crops. A few sheds and barns were also destroyed.

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

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:08 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:50 UTC and running to 02:38 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:50 UTC02:38 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchMEG
23:42 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
00:08 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningMEG

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. The outlook in force was issued at 20:05 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

0.2 hours before the tornado, 141 km from the path. April 26, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2006-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 890 joules per kilogram, CIN -61, lifted condensation level 770 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 2006-04-26The 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 86 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
890 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-61 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1255 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
770 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
2.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z

11.8 hours after it, 141 km from the path. April 26, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2006-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 511 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2006-04-26The 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 -65 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
511 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-65 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:07 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
23:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGKennettDunklin, MOTREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. TWO TO THREE BUILDINGS DAMAGED. TWO HOUSES ON COUNTY ROADS 508 AND 551 MAJOR DAMAGE.
23:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 E KennettDunklin, MOLARGE TREE LIMBS DOWN. IRRIGATION EQUIPMENT BLOWN OVER.
23:35 UTCHAIL 2.75KennettDunklin, MO
23:40 UTCHAIL 1KennettDunklin, MO
23:44 UTCHAIL 0.75KennettDunklin, MO
23:45 UTCHAIL 1KennettDunklin, MO
00:01 UTCTORNADO1 S DeeringPemiscot, MO
00:08 UTCTORNADO 1W DeeringPemiscot, MOTHE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR HIGHWAY C WEST OF DERRING. THE TORNADO LIFTED AND TOUCHED DOWN AGAIN NEAR HIGHWAYS U AND J. THE TORNADO PROCEEDED INTO CARUTHERSVILLE ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF MILE SOUTH OF THE F3 DAMAGE TORN
00:08 UTCTORNADO 1W DeeringPemiscot, MOTHE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR HIGHWAY C WEST OF DERRING. THE TORNADO LIFTED AND TOUCHED DOWN AGAIN NEAR HIGHWAYS U AND J. THE TORNADO THEN PROCEEDED INTO CARUTHERSVILLE.
00:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGCaruthersvillePemiscot, MOTRAILER BLOWN OVER ON SIDE.
00:10 UTCTORNADO 1SteelePemiscot, MOTHE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR STEELE AND MOVED ACROSS INTERSTATE 55. THE TORNADO MOVED INTO COTTONWOOD POINT BEFORE LIFTING. DAMAGE WAS MAINLY TO AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS.
00:10 UTCTORNADO2 Se DeeringPemiscot, MO1 MILE EAST OF BRAGGADOCIO MISSOURI. SEVERAL SMALL TORNADOES.
00:17 UTCTORNADO 1CaruthersvillePemiscot, MOA TORNADO MOVED FROM DEERING THROUGH CARUTHERSVILLE ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF MILE SOUTH OF THE F3 DAMAGE TORNADO TRACK ON APRIL 2ND. THE TORNADO WIDTH WAS AROUND 100 YARDS...EXCEPT 300 TO 400 YARDS NEAR CARUTHERSVILLE. SE
00:17 UTCTORNADOCaruthersvillePemiscot, MOBUILDINGS DAMAGED.
00:26 UTCHAIL 1.75CardwellDunklin, MO

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 25, 2006

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 254:40 PM CDTF0Oregon, MO8.050
April 256:25 PM EDTF0Scott, VA1.525$50,000
April 257:08 PM CDTF1Pemiscot, MO15.0100$60,000
April 257:20 PM CDTF0Duval, TX1.0100$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.