EF1 tornado, Madison to Lakenan, Missouri, March 1, 2007

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. 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.

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

EF1

Date

March 1, 2007

Touchdown

1:43 AM CST (07:43 UTC)

Lifted

1:49 AM CST (07:49 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

8.6 miles (13.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Monroe and Shelby counties

Touchdown point

39.599, -92.100

Lift-off point

39.681, -91.985

Record number

0703010143-01

A warm front extended from a strong surface low west of Columbia, Missouri to just south of St. Louis and across Southern Illinois. Unseasonably warm, moist, and unstable air was moving north towards central Missouri while cooler moist air was present north of the warm front. This helped to trigger severe thunderstorms along and north of the warm front, including a severe bow echo system. The storms began to develop during the evening hours of February 28th and persisted into the late morning hours of March 1st.

A tornado first touched down along Highway K one mile west of Highway 151. A machine shed was completely destroyed with the debris field extending some 300 yards to the south and southeast. Some pieces of the debris damaged the roof of a farm home and another machine shed on Highway K. The tornado then lifted and touched down again at the intersection of Highway 151 and County Road 136 causing slight roof damage to a home and blowing down several large tree limbs. The tornado made a third and final touch down at the intersection of County Roads 136 and 117. Several large pine trees were blown down at this location before the tornado lifted and dissipated.

A second tornado touched down in Monroe County about 1.5 miles west of the intersection of County Roads 182 and 169 completely destroying a machine shed. The debris area stretched approximately half a mile to the northeast from the original location. Four cows were killed by the flying debris. As the tornado moved to the northeast, it briefly touched down a second time on County Road 211 damaging trees and a pole barn. Debris from the pole barn was thrown over 100 yards. The tornado then lifted and dissipated.

A third tornado touched down in Monroe County about three quarters of a mile south of the intersection of County Roads 284 and 215. A metal shed, a pole barn and a house were damaged in this location. The tornado then traveled to the northeast damaging numerous structures, automobiles and trees along County Road 284. One house had the entire corner of the roof and walls removed while a mobile home suffered extensive damage with one half of the structure being completely destroyed as it was flipped over. Further northeast along County Road 239 another farm sustained damage. A machine shed was partially destroyed with missile debris observed in a camper that was parked on the property. The debris field stretched for 100 yards to the northeast. Further along the path another pole barn was destroyed and a large grove of cedar trees...most of which were 1 foot in diameter...were snapped off. Just north of the intersection of Highway 15 and County Road 386, more power poles were snapped off and a pole barn sustained minor damage to the siding and roof. The tornado continued to the northeast and crossed into Shelby County near the intersection of County Roads 398 and 307.

As the tornado moved into Shelby County from Monroe County, it destroyed a pole barn on U.S. Highway 36 about 2 miles west northwest of Lakenan. The debris field stretched 150 yards to the northeast. The tornado then lifted and dissipated.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 06:16 UTC and running to 12:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:14 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.

Kirksville (IRK), 66 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 157 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:41 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 2007 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

42 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.