Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2007
EF1 tornado, Holden, Missouri, February 24, 2007
This EF1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Johnson County on February 24, 2007, touching down at 5:18 PM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 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
- EF1
- Date
- February 24, 2007
- Touchdown
- 5:18 PM CST (23:18 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:21 PM CST (23:21 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 2.0 miles (3.2 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $200,000
- County
- Johnson County
- Touchdown point
- 38.648, -94.000
- Lift-off point
- 38.677, -94.000
- Record number
- 0702241718-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A low pressure system and its associated warm and cold fronts, moved east across west central Missouri, during the late afternoon hours on February 24th. An isolated supercell thunderstorm formed just north of the warm front, or 5 miles south of Holden in Johnson county Missouri. The EF1 tornado tracked north-northeast two miles before lifting 3 miles south of Holden. Another thunderstorm produced hail in Carroll county during the early evening hours, as the cold front swept east.
EF1 tornado touched down 5 miles south of Holden at 5:18 PM CST and moved north-northeast 2 miles, before lifting 3 miles south of Holden at 5:21 PM CST. The tornado damaged two homes, one business, and several farm buildings. Power lines and trees were also downed.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
11 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:07 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:07 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | EAX |
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 19:42 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.
Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z
11.3 hours before the tornado, 147 km from the path. February 24, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -32537 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1073 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 54 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 35 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 396 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 392 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z
0.7 hours after it, 147 km from the path. February 25, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 164 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -40 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 409 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1175 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -99 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -101 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.4 K/km
The radar
The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:17 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:18 UTC | TORNADO | 2 S Holden | Johnson, MO | DAMAGE TO A HOUSE AND OUTBUILDINGS. POWER LINES DOWN. |
| 23:21 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Holden | Johnson, MO |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of February 24, 2007
17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 24 | 10:42 AM CST | EF1 | Bossier Parish, LA | 1.0 | 200 | 1 | ||
| February 24 | 1:15 PM CST | EF0 | Russell, KS | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| February 24 | 1:35 PM CST | EF3 | Union, AR | 26.0 | 250 | 5 | ||
| February 24 | 1:58 PM CST | EF2 | Bradley, AR | 21.6 | 440 | 6 | $200,000 | |
| February 24 | 2:36 PM CST | EF3 | Drew, AR | 29.1 | 880 | 28 | $45 million | |
| February 24 | 3:15 PM CST | EF0 | Union Parish, LA | 2.0 | 150 | |||
| February 24 | 3:20 PM CST | EF1 | Union, AR | 5.0 | 150 | |||
| February 24 | 4:01 PM CST | EF2 | Drew, AR | 14.8 | 200 | $200,000 | ||
| February 24 | 4:30 PM CST | EF1 | Desha, AR | 8.5 | 150 | $125,000 | ||
| February 24 | 4:33 PM CST | EF1 | Drew, AR | 0.9 | 50 | |||
| February 24 | 4:44 PM CST | EF0 | Ashley, AR | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| February 24 | 6:05 PM CST | EF1 | Sunflower, MS | 12.0 | 150 | $650,000 | ||
| February 24 | 6:26 PM CST | EF0 | Leflore, MS | 1.0 | 40 | $80,000 | ||
| February 24 | 7:13 PM CST | EF2 | Catahoula Parish, LA | 7.3 | 400 | $800,000 | ||
| February 24 | 7:24 PM CST | EF2 | Concordia Parish, LA | 10.0 | 500 | $300,000 | ||
| February 24 | 9:47 PM CST | EF1 | Rankin, MS | 1.0 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| February 24 | 10:40 PM CST | EF1 | Newton, MS | 3.5 | 150 | $70,000 |
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.