EF1 tornado, Vera, Missouri, April 15, 2011

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

April 15, 2011

Touchdown

1:35 PM CDT (18:35 UTC)

Lifted

1:40 PM CDT (18:40 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pike County

Touchdown point

39.336, -91.133

Lift-off point

39.380, -91.134

Record number

1104151235-01

A strong cold front moved through the region, triggering showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms produced severe weather including large hail, damaging winds and an isolated tornado.

A tornado initially touched down one-quarter mile north of the intersection of Highway NN and County Road 277 at 1:35 PM CDT. Several cedar trees were severely damaged at this location. The debris from the cedar trees fell 70 to 80 yards to the north. The tornado then damaged a double wide house trailer in which the walls on the north and east side of the structure were completely removed. Nearly all of the roof was uplifted and carried 40 to 70 yards to the north. A swing set was mangled in a large tree. Additional smaller debris from the home was carried in a ravine while a few large tree limbs were damaged. The width of the damage was approximately 40 yards while the damage was rated EF1. The tornado skipped north and damaged several cedar trees and a few hardwood trees approximately three-quarter mile north of the first damage area. The tornado missed a large machine shed, although two large doors on the east side of the machine shed were bowed out to the east. An SUV parked east of the machine shed was tossed into a small pond. The width of the damage area was 30 to 40 yards while the tree damage was rated EF0. Additional tree damage was found one quarter to one half miles to the north along County Road 277. The tornado continued moving north with intermittent touchdowns and damaged a farmstead approximately one-quarter mile south of U.S. Highway 54 and one-half mile east of Vera, Missouri. A machine shed was completely destroyed and corrugated steel from the shed was wrapped around the bottom part of several large trees, which where were snapped off half way up. Additional metal debris was tossed one-half mile to the north across U.S. Highway 54. There was minor damage to some flat bed trailers in a field on the west side of a business area. The width of the damage area was 50 yards, while damage was rated low end EF1. In summary, the maximum damage rating of this tornado was EF1, with winds of 90 to 95 mph. The total length was 3 miles, with a maximum width of 50 yards. No injuries were reported.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:47 UTC and running to 21:05 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 16:17 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 St Louis radar (KLSX), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:35 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 2011 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

74 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 75 of them

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.