EF0 tornado, Topaz, Missouri, April 10, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   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

EF0

Date

April 10, 2008

Touchdown

7:55 AM CDT (12:55 UTC)

Lifted

7:56 AM CDT (12:56 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

County

Douglas County

Touchdown point

36.940, -92.260

Lift-off point

36.942, -92.254

Record number

0804100655-01

Repeated development of storms along and north of an advancing warm front led to a large swath of greater than three inches of rain south of a line from Stockton to West Plains. This excessive rain occurred on wet soil conditions from record rainfall in February and March. Nearly 100 reports of flash flooding were received between midnight and 11 am on the 10th. Two fatalities occurred from this episode of dangerous flash flooding. Record flooding occurred along Lake Taneycomo as high releases from Table Rock Lake Dam flooded all lowlands along Taneycomo, including numerous frame and mobile homes. The Core of Engineers released 46,500 cubic feet per second, which was an all time high. The lake crested at 933.25 feet above sea level, which was a record level. Due to an unusually high water table along with saturated soil conditions, all counties within the NWS Springfield County Warning Area experienced widespread flooding on nearly all secondary roads. Emergency Management Directors across the region that were responsible for baracading roads, stated that as little as one half of an inch of rain was causing widespread road closures across their county of interest.

A National Weather Service storm survey revealed that an EF-0 tornado touched down in rural eastern Douglas County. One home sustained major roof damage while two other buildings were destroyed.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:30 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:19 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 12:44 UTC and running to 15:02 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 06:01 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), 107 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:57 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 2008 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

32 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.