Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2011

EF1 tornado, Old Greenville to Williamsville, Missouri, April 22, 2011

From Old Greenville to Williamsville, this EF1 tornado ran 2.1 miles across Wayne County on April 22, 2011, touching down at 8:10 PM CDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 of property damage.

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 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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
April 22, 2011
Touchdown
8:10 PM CDT (01:10 UTC)
Lifted
8:12 PM CDT (01:12 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
2.1 miles (3.3 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
Wayne County
Touchdown point
37.067, -90.561
Lift-off point
37.039, -90.572
Record number
1104221910-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Bands and clusters of strong to severe thunderstorms produced isolated reports of damaging winds, large hail, and even a tornado. A fast-moving upper level trough tracked east-northeastward from the central Plains into the upper Midwest. Strong south-southwesterly low level winds across the Mississippi Valley transported Gulf moisture rapidly northward. Thunderstorms increased along and south of a warm front draped across southern Illinois.

One mobile home was destroyed by a falling tree. Several outbuildings and a garage were destroyed. Dozens or perhaps hundreds of trees were uprooted. Two convergent path meso vortices were evident. The width of the tornado was difficult to determine due to the interaction with a downburst. There was a large swath of easterly falling trees on conservation land. Some of the pine trees within this area were snapped three feet above the ground. Highway V was blocked by trees and power lines in numerous places. Peak winds were estimated near 100 mph.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:51 UTC and running to 06:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:51 UTC06:00 UTCTornado WatchPAH
00:54 UTC01:22 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPAH
00:57 UTC03:38 UTCFlash Flood WarningPAH
01:14 UTC01:49 UTCTornado WarningPAH
02:07 UTC02:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPAH
02:29 UTC02:59 UTCTornado WarningPAH
06:11 UTC10:00 UTCTornado WatchPAH
07:02 UTC09:39 UTCFlood AdvisoryPAH
17:56 UTC21:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryPAH

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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.

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z

1.2 hours before the tornado, 253 km from the path. April 23, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2011-04-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1313 joules per kilogram, CIN -176, lifted condensation level 1542 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2011-04-23The 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 104 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
1313 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-176 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2107 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1542 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
196 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
3.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z

10.8 hours after it, 253 km from the path. April 23, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2011-04-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1696 joules per kilogram, CIN -99, lifted condensation level 677 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2011-04-23The 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 216 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
1696 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-99 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1060 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
677 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
216 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
243 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
12.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 159 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:08 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
01:25 UTCHAIL 1.25ZalmaBollinger, MOFALLING WEST AND SOUTHWEST OF CITY LIMITS
01:30 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD12 Ne Poplar BluffButler, MOIT HAS ALREADY LIFTED
02:00 UTCHAIL 1GrandinCarter, MO
02:30 UTCFLASH FLOOD5 Ese WinonaShannon, MOLOW WATER CROSSING ON HIGHWAY SOUTH W CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 22, 2011

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 226:03 PM CDTEF0Okfuskee, OK0.5150
April 226:16 PM CDTEF0Delaware, OK0.150
April 226:41 PM CDTEF0Benton, AR0.150
April 227:05 PM CDTEF0Benton, AR0.150
April 227:17 PM CDTEF1Saint Charles, MO7.3250
April 227:18 PM CDTEF1Cherokee, OK1.0200
April 227:19 PM CDTEF0Okmulgee, OK0.5100
April 227:21 PM CDTEF0Benton, AR0.150
April 227:45 PM CDTEF0McClain, OK0.5150
April 227:59 PM CDTEF1McClain, OK to MO, IL0.230$5,000
April 227:59 PM CDTEF4St. Louis tornado, MO21.38805$250 million
April 228:02 PM CDTEF0Garvin, OK0.450
April 228:14 PM CDTEF0McIntosh, OK0.150
April 228:50 PM CDTEF2Monroe, IL3.5901
April 228:55 PM CDTEF2Madison, IL18.2700
April 229:02 PM CDTEF1Saint Clair, IL1.880
April 2210:50 PM CDTEF2Union, KY15.53002$880,000
April 2211:27 PM CDTEF0Daviess, KY0.240$3,000
April 221:35 AM EDTEF0Jackson, IN3.850$30,000

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.