EF3 tornado, Bloodland to (Tbn)Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri, December 31, 2010

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

December 31, 2010

Touchdown

9:43 AM CST (15:43 UTC)

Lifted

10:03 AM CST (16:03 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

7.5 miles (12.1 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

Property damage

$90 million

County

Pulaski County

Touchdown point

37.686, -92.190

Lift-off point

37.764, -92.087

Record number

1012310943-01

Between the evening of the 30th and the morning of the 31st, two separate lines of thunderstorms produced significant severe weather across southwest Missouri including damaging wind, large hail, and deadly tornadoes. The first round of storms lifted out of Arkansas late on the evening of the 30th and the second round moved out of western Kansas shortly before daybreak on the 31st.

A NWS storm survey team determined that a tornado occurred over Fort Leonard Wood. Numerous homes were destroyed on the east side of the base. Several homes suffered complete wall damage. A total of 159 homes were damaged with 41 destroyed and 32 others with significant damage. Extensive to moderate damage occurred to numerous military training areas, moderate damage occurred to installation utility systems, and extensive damage occurred in one installation family housing area. The water treatment plant on the base was severely damage which completely lost its second level of the building. The tornado disrupted the base's power supply system, shut off the water system, and damaged gas lines on the base.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:22 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:55 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:32 UTC and running to 16:46 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:53 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), 124 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:44 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 2010 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

28 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.