Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2009

EF0 tornado, Cameron Muni Arpt, Missouri, April 25, 2009

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Clinton County on April 25, 2009, touching down at 9:17 PM CDT and reaching 25 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
April 25, 2009
Touchdown
9:17 PM CDT (02:17 UTC)
Lifted
9:18 PM CDT (02:18 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Clinton County
Touchdown point
39.730, -94.250
Lift-off point
39.730, -94.250
Record number
0904252017-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong upper level storm system, combined with rich gulf moisture, helped to produce several reports of hail and an isolated tornado, in the late afternoon and evening hours of April 25, 2009.

At 2017 CST, a brief EF0 tornado touchdown was observed along Highway A, 1 mile southwest of the Cameron Airport. No damage was observed.

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

The warnings

18 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:59 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:30 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:30 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchEAX
22:53 UTC23:25 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEAX
23:24 UTC05:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningEAX
01:48 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEAX
01:59 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningEAX
03:05 UTC03:27 UTCTornado WarningEAX
03:10 UTC08:25 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchEAX
18:00 UTC15:37 UTCFlood WatchEAX

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 01:02 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), 00:00Z

2.3 hours before the tornado, 144 km from the path. April 26, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2009-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 421 joules per kilogram, CIN -157, lifted condensation level 554 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, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2009-04-26The 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 298 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.193958Sfc1 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
421 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-157 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
554 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
298 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
389 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
10.6
0-3 km lapse rate
3.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z

9.7 hours after it, 144 km from the path. April 26, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2009-04-26Temperature 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 -68839, lifted condensation level 2039 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, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2009-04-26The 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 200 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-68839 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2039 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
200 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
301 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:18 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
23:22 UTCHAIL 0.75JamesportDaviess, MO
01:55 UTCHAIL 0.88DearbornPlatte, MO
02:04 UTCHAIL 1OsbornDekalb, MO
02:17 UTCTORNADO1 Sw CameronClinton, MOALONG A HWY NEAR THE AIRPORT
02:17 UTCTORNADOCameronDekalb, MOALONG A HWY NEAR THE AIRPORT
02:30 UTCHAIL 1N OsbornDekalb, MO
02:52 UTCFLOOD5 S JamesportDaviess, MO3 TO 4 INCHES OF WATER FLOWING OVER THE ROAD AT HWY V AND HWY 190

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 25, 2009

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 256:35 PM CDTEF1Leavenworth, KS7.275$400,000
April 256:49 PM CDTEF0Sumner, KS0.570
April 257:34 PM CDTEF0Cowley, KS0.570
April 258:29 PM CDTEF1Butler, KS1.275$30,000
April 2510:10 PM CDTEF2Garfield, OK1.530
April 2510:42 PM CDTEF2Garfield, OK1.350
April 2512:50 AM CDTEF1Garfield, OK6.075

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.