EF0 tornado, Plattsburg to Lilly, Missouri, May 12, 2010

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 12, 2010

Touchdown

11:52 PM CDT (04:52 UTC)

Lifted

11:55 PM CDT (04:55 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Clinton County

Touchdown point

39.512, -94.470

Lift-off point

39.513, -94.465

Record number

1005122252-01

Severe weather and heavy rain was observed across the lower Missouri River Valley region, May 12th through may 13th. Numerous impacts were felt in the region, with heavy rain, wind damage, and hail. ||The most severe weather took place in portions of eastern Kansas and western Missouri, as a strong bow echo moved through the area near and just after the midnight hour. Embedded in this bow echo were small features called meso-vortices, which can often times cause local intensifications of the strong straightline winds, or even produce weak spinnup tornadoes. One such feature embedded in a smaller bowing storm segment south of the Plattsburg area, led to reports of a damaged greenhouse, tree damage, as well as damage to other nearby structures. It was determined, that a combination of enhanced straight line winds as well as a very brief and weak (EF0) tornado, produced winds as high as 70 to 85 mph in this area. Further to the south, strong straight line winds, also blew over trees and caused other forms of property damage, to fences and homes in areas around Kansas City. Several observations of 60 to 70 mph winds were observed in the area. ||However, the biggest impact from this event, was the persistent heavy rain due to the training of storms over the same areas. The hardest hit areas were in the Kirksville and Chillicothe areas, where rainfall totals in the 3 to 6 inch range were common. Elsewhere, while rainfall amounts may have been lower, the rapid rainfall rates in excess of 2 per hour, caused localized flash flooding in portions of the Kansas City Metropoitan area and elsewhere. The heavy rains caused many rivers and creeks to go out of their banks.

A brief EF0 tornado touchdown at 2252 CST was reported 4 miles south of Plattsburg, around J Highway and Middle Road. The tornado lifted at 2255 CST, with damage reported to two greenhouses/outbuildings. Trees larger than one foot in diamater, were also found snapped off at a height of 14 feet. These trees blocked roads. Power lines were also reported down.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:51 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:54 UTC and running to 05:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:52 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.

Kansas City/International (MCI), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:51 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

7 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.