Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2008
EF0 tornado, Albatross, Missouri, March 31, 2008
This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Lawrence County on March 31, 2008, touching down at 10:09 AM CDT and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- March 31, 2008
- Touchdown
- 10:09 AM CDT (15:09 UTC)
- Lifted
- 10:10 AM CDT (15:10 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.7 km)
- Path width
- 40 yards (37 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $20,000
- County
- Lawrence County
- Touchdown point
- 37.169, -93.844
- Lift-off point
- 37.172, -93.837
- Record number
- 0803310909-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Eleven tornadoes and significant flash flooding occurred in response to several clusters of thunderstorms impacting the Missouri Ozarks. The ground was saturated from record rainfall in both the months of February and March.
A National Weather Service storm survey revealed that an EF-0 tornado damaged a hay barn and snapped a few power poles approximately two miles south of Miller.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
30 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:39 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:45 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:45 UTC and running to 21:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13:45 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | SGF |
| 14:14 UTC | 15:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 14:39 UTC | 15:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | SGF |
| 15:08 UTC | 15:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | SGF |
| 15:33 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | SGF |
| 18:07 UTC | 18:48 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 18:15 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | SGF |
| 19:17 UTC | 20:01 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 23:41 UTC | 14:09 UTC | Flood Warning | 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:58 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), 12:00Z
3.2 hours before the tornado, 30 km from the path. March 31, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 640 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -126 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 395 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 596 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 48 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 35 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 336 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 354 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.6
- Supercell composite
- 10.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z
8.8 hours after it, 30 km from the path. April 1, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 25 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -145 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 571 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 51 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 134 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 88 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.6 K/km
The surface observations
Springfield (SGF), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13:21 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 160° 15 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |
| 13:52 UTC | 62 | 59 | 160° 15 kt | 1010.5 | ||
| 14:52 UTC | 62 | 59 | 150° 18 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 15:41 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 140° 19 kt | 25 | 1008.1 | TS |
| 16:42 UTC | 66.2 | 60.8 | 160° 14 kt | 22 | 1008.1 | |
| 16:52 UTC | 68 | 62 | 160° 17 kt | 25 | 1007.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Springfield radar (KSGF), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:09 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13:50 UTC | HAIL 0.7 | Joplin | Jasper, MO | DIME SIZE HAIL AT MILE MARKER 5.4 ON INTERSTATE 44. |
| 14:54 UTC | WALL CLOUD | Stotts City | Lawrence, MO | DEPUTY AT THE INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAYS 96 AND 97. |
| 15:04 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 2 Sw Miller | Lawrence, MO | |
| 15:05 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Sw Miller | Lawrence, MO | SPOTTER OBSERVED A BRIEF TOUCH DOWN. |
| 15:05 UTC | TORNADO | 3 S Miller | Lawrence, MO | A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY TEAM DETERMINED THAT AN EF-0 TORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT 3 MILES SOUTH OF MILLER. WINDS ESTIMATED AT 68 MPH...WITH A DAMAGE PATH 40 YARDS WIDE AND 250 YARDS LONG. MINOR DAMA |
| 15:12 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Miller | Lawrence, MO | TORNADO STILL ON THE GROUND AND INTENSIFYING. CONFIRMED DAMAGE...POWERPOLES HAVE BEEN SNAPPED ALONG HIGHWAY 39 SOUTH OF MILLER. |
| 15:53 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 N Willard | Greene, MO | |
| 16:08 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | Pleasant Hope | Polk, MO | |
| 16:15 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 1 Se Pleasant Hope | Polk, MO | A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY DETERMINED THAT AN EF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BREIFLY...DAMAGING A BARN AND CARRYING DEBRIS AS MUCH AS A QUARTER MILE AWAY. ROOF DAMAGE TO A NEARBY HOME AND A DOWNED POWER POLE WAS A |
| 16:15 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Se Pleasant Hope | Polk, MO | DEBRIS FROM BARN BLOWN UPTO A QUARTER MILE AWAY. ROOF DAMAGE TO NEARBY HOME AND POWER POLE DOWNED. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 31, 2008
20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 31 | 1:23 AM CDT | EF0 | Oklahoma, OK | 0.2 | 20 | |||
| March 31 | 1:39 AM CDT | EF1 | Oklahoma, OK | 3.5 | 100 | $450,000 | ||
| March 31 | 5:46 AM CDT | EF1 | Osage, OK | 5.5 | 250 | $50,000 | ||
| March 31 | 7:25 AM CDT | EF0 | Washington, OK | 0.2 | 100 | |||
| March 31 | 9:20 AM CDT | EF0 | Noble, OK | 0.1 | 20 | $5,000 | ||
| March 31 | 9:48 AM CDT | EF0 | Hickory, MO | 3.4 | 100 | $25,000 | ||
| March 31 | 10:33 AM CDT | EF0 | Vernon, MO | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| March 31 | 11:59 AM CDT | EF0 | Cedar, MO | 0.6 | 75 | $5,000 | ||
| March 31 | 1:44 PM CDT | EF1 | Ottawa, OK to MO | 5.4 | 200 | $125,000 | ||
| March 31 | 1:59 PM CDT | EF0 | Newton, MO | 3.8 | 80 | 3 | $100,000 | |
| March 31 | 2:17 PM CDT | EF2 | Dallas, MO | 4.7 | 300 | 3 | $1.0 million | |
| March 31 | 2:46 PM CDT | EF2 | Laclede, MO | 1.8 | 75 | $500,000 | ||
| March 31 | 3:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Johnson, TX | 0.8 | 40 | $35,000 | ||
| March 31 | 3:10 PM CDT | EF0 | Johnson, TX | 1.5 | 40 | $75,000 | ||
| March 31 | 4:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Monroe, IL | 1.8 | 30 | |||
| March 31 | 5:06 PM CDT | EF0 | Polk, MO | 0.8 | 50 | $25,000 | ||
| March 31 | 5:12 PM CDT | EF0 | Ozark, MO | 0.2 | 20 | $1,000 | ||
| March 31 | 5:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Howell, MO | 0.0 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| March 31 | 7:10 PM CDT | EF0 | Choctaw, OK | 0.1 | 75 | |||
| March 31 | 7:31 PM CDT | EF1 | McCurtain, OK | 4.9 | 450 | $10,000 |
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.