EF1 tornado, Leopold to Whitewater, Missouri, March 8, 2009

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 8, 2009

Touchdown

12:15 PM CDT (17:15 UTC)

Lifted

12:27 PM CDT (17:27 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

6.5 miles (10.4 km)

Path width

70 yards (64 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$130,000

Counties

Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties

Touchdown point

37.253, -89.952

Lift-off point

37.244, -89.835

Record number

0903081115-01

A strong 500 mb shortwave moved rapidly northeast from the Plains during the day. The shortwave became a closed low over the Great Lakes region by the evening hours. In the lower levels, a strong southwest 850 mb jet from 60 to 65 knots shifted east from the Ozarks across southern Illinois. These features provided sufficient shear and instability for a round of severe weather.

Several houses received major shingle damage. A barn was destroyed. Two-by-fours were driven through the exterior wall of a well-built home. A garage wall was blown out. A few other barns sustained significant structural damage. The damage path was not continuous. Peak winds were estimated near 85 mph. The tornado continued into Cape Girardeau County.

The tornado entered Cape Girardeau County from Bollinger County. Almost all the shingles were blown off a house. Two barns were destroyed. The debris landed on a car and truck. The doors were blown out of a third barn. A carport was damaged. Steel siding was driven into trees. Trees were snapped. Peak winds were estimated near 80 mph.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:52 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:43 UTC and running to 19:16 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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:26 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.

Cape Girardeau (CGI), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:15 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 2009 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

25 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.