Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2006
F0 tornado, Everton to Ash Grove, Missouri, May 3, 2006
From Everton to Ash Grove, this F0 tornado ran 8.0 miles across Dade and Greene counties on May 3, 2006, touching down at 7:56 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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 mphthis tornado
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 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
- F0
- Date
- May 3, 2006
- Touchdown
- 7:56 PM CDT (00:56 UTC)
- Path length
- 8.0 miles (12.9 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Counties
- Dade and Greene counties
- Touchdown point
- 37.330, -93.680
- Lift-off point
- 37.230, -93.550
- Record number
- 463
What the Weather Service recorded
A National Weather Service storm survey revealed that a weak tornado produced intermittent tree damage across rural sections of southeast Dade County. The tornado later tracked into western Greene County.
This tornado is a continuation of the Dade County tornado. A National Weather Service storm survey revealed that a weak tornado caused intermittent tree damage across rural sections of western Greene County.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
44 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:12 UTC, 44 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:48 UTC and running to 02:03 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:05 UTC | 00:48 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SGF |
| 00:12 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | SGF |
| 00:48 UTC | 02:03 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SGF |
| 01:12 UTC | 07:15 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | SGF |
| 09:03 UTC | 20:03 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | 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. The outlook in force was issued at 20:03 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
0.9 hours before the tornado, 45 km from the path. May 4, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1050 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -6 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1671 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1499 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 10 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 67 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 0.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.7 K/km
Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z
11.1 hours after it, 45 km from the path. May 4, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -348 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 796 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 6 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -12 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 32 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
The surface observations
Springfield (SGF), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:52 UTC | 78 | 63 | 0° 0 kt | 1012.9 | ||
| 00:52 UTC | 73 | 64 | 170° 4 kt | 1012.9 | VCTS | |
| 01:22 UTC | 62.6 | 57.2 | 350° 32 kt | 38 | 1015.6 | -TSRA |
| 01:27 UTC | 59 | 57.2 | 360° 21 kt | 38 | 1016.3 | +TSRA BR |
| 01:35 UTC | 59 | 57.2 | 20° 18 kt | 28 | 1015.9 | +TSRA BR |
| 01:41 UTC | 59 | 57.2 | 40° 10 kt | 1015.2 | TSRA BR | |
| 01:45 UTC | 60.8 | 59 | 60° 6 kt | 1015.6 | -TSRA BR | |
| 01:52 UTC | 60 | 59 | 50° 6 kt | 1015.9 | +TSRA BR | |
| 02:12 UTC | 60.8 | 59 | 90° 8 kt | 1015.6 | VCTS -RA | |
| 02:23 UTC | 60.8 | 57.2 | 80° 8 kt | 1015.2 | ||
| 02:52 UTC | 60 | 58 | 100° 4 kt | 1015.2 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Springfield radar (KSGF), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:56 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:33 UTC | HAIL 1 | Greenfield | Dade, MO | DADE COUNTY 911 REPORTED QUARTER HAIL IN TOWN |
| 00:33 UTC | HAIL 1 | Willard | Greene, MO | |
| 00:47 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Everton | Dade, MO | SEVERAL TREES DOWNED. |
| 00:56 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Walnut Grove | Greene, MO | TIN ROOF ON HOUSE BLOWN OFF |
| 00:56 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Se Everton | Dade, MO | A NWS STORM SURVEY REVEALED THAT AN F0 TORNADO PRODUCED INTERMITTENT DAMAGE FROM 2 MILES SOUTHEAST OF EVERTON AND TRACKED INTO GREENE COUNTY TO TWO MILES WEST SOUTHWEST OF BOIS DARC. |
| 01:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Ash Grove | Greene, MO | TREES AND POWER POLES SNAPPED IN ASH GROVE |
| 01:06 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 N Ash Grove | Greene, MO | SEVERAL TREES DOWN...SOME AS LARGE AS TWO FEET IN DIAMETER. |
| 01:06 UTC | DENSE FOG | 2 N Ash Grove | Greene, MO | SEVERAL TREES DOWN...SOME AS LARGE AS TWO FEET IN DIAMETER. |
| 01:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nw Halltown | Lawrence, MO | TREES BLOWN DOWN |
| 01:18 UTC | HAIL 1 | 2 S Willard | Greene, MO | |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 52 | Springfield | Greene, MO | 52 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED AT THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FROM RSOIS EQUIPMENT. |
| 01:33 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Springfield | Greene, MO | TREES DOWN ON ELM BETWEEN NATIONAL AND GLENSTONE |
| 01:33 UTC | TSTM WND GST 0 | 1 S Springfield | Greene, MO | 62 MPH WIND MEASURED IN SOUTH SPRINGFIELD |
| 01:39 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 N Ozark | Christian, MO | POWER TRANSFORMERS FLASHING NEAR THE GREENE CHRISTIAN COUNTY BORDER NEAR THE INTERSECTION HIGHWAYS 65 AND CC. |
| 01:39 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Springfield | Greene, MO | WATER OVER ROAD AT 2500 BLOCK OF WEST COLLEGE |
| 01:39 UTC | TSTM WND GST 64 | 5 S Northview | Webster, MO | 64 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED BY HAM RADIO OPERATOR BETWEEN NORTHVIEW AND FORDLAND. |
| 01:53 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Ozark | Christian, MO | TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN IN OZARK |
| 02:10 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 2 E Greenfield | Dade, MO | LOW WATER CROSSING FLOODED |
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 May 3, 2006
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.