F3 tornado, Fordland to Hartville, Missouri, March 12, 2006

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

F3

Date

March 12, 2006

Touchdown

11:15 PM CST (05:15 UTC)

Path length

32.0 miles (51.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$530,000

Counties

Webster, Wright and Laclede counties

Touchdown point

37.250, -92.870

Lift-off point

37.520, -92.400

Record number

135

This tornado was spawned from the same cyclic supercell that produced a tornado across Lawrence, Christian, and Greene counties. A large tornado touched down northwest of Fordland and lifted approximately 7 miles north of Diggins in rural central Webster County. While this initial tornado was dissipating, a second tornado was in the process of forming, eventually touching down six miles north of Diggins, and tracking into Wright County. The two tornadoes were responsible for 13 injuries while damaging 48 structures and destroying 17.

This tornado is a continuation of the second Webster County tornado that crossed into Wright County approximately one mile north of Duncan. The tornado continued to produce significant structural damage across rural northwest Wright County. The tornado eventually crossed into Laclede County near the community of Competition. 23 structures were damaged while six structures were completely destroyed.

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:39 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:43 UTC and running to 08:38 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 High 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 01:01 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 Springfield radar (KSGF), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:16 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 2006 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

54 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.