Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2008

EF0 tornado, Mindenmines, Missouri, May 13, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Barton County on May 13, 2008, touching down at 8:27 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 13, 2008
Touchdown
8:27 PM CDT (01:27 UTC)
Lifted
8:28 PM CDT (01:28 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Barton County
Touchdown point
37.470, -94.590
Lift-off point
37.470, -94.590
Record number
0805131927-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A few strong to marginally severe thunderstorms impacted extreme southeast Kansas and far western Missouri. One storm that tracked across Barton County produced nickel size hail along with a brief tornado.

Trained spotters in Barton County observed a brief tornado. The tornado touched down near a strip pit area, and no damage occurred.

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

The warnings

49 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:38 UTC, 49 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:15 UTC and running to 03:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:15 UTC03:30 UTCTornado WatchSGF
00:38 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningSGF
01:24 UTC02:15 UTCTornado WarningSGF
02:10 UTC02:32 UTCTornado WarningSGF

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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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 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

1.5 hours before the tornado, 94 km from the path. May 14, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2008-05-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 635 joules per kilogram, CIN -61, lifted condensation level 624 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2008-05-14The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 201 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
635 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-61 J/kg
Surface CAPE
304 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
624 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
201 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
215 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
6.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

10.5 hours after it, 94 km from the path. May 14, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2008-05-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -70796, lifted condensation level 644 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2008-05-14The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 77 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-70796 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
644 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:26 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:27 UTCTORNADOMindenminesBarton, MOEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTS A BRIEF TORNADO NEAR MINDENMINES. SEVERAL REPORTS OF FUNNELS SOUTH OF 160 BETWEEN MINDENMINES AND LAMAR. HAIL NICKEL TO QUARTER SIZE IN MINDENMINES.
01:46 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 S LamarBarton, MOEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTS FUNNEL 1 MILE SOUTH OF LAMAR NEAR THE GOLF COURSE.
01:56 UTCHAIL 0.881 E LamarBarton, MOEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTS NICKEL SIZE HAIL AT A HIGHWAY AND 160
02:07 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sw BostonBarton, MOTREES DOWN HIGHWAY 126 AND HIGHWAY 71.

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

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.