EF1 tornado, Shelbina, Missouri, June 26, 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

June 26, 2011

Touchdown

12:47 AM CDT (05:47 UTC)

Lifted

12:50 AM CDT (05:50 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.2 miles (2.0 km)

Path width

70 yards (64 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Shelby County

Touchdown point

39.686, -92.043

Lift-off point

39.674, -92.026

Record number

1106262347-01

A powerful complex of thunderstorms, known as a bow echo, moved across Missouri and Illinois during the late evening hours of June 26th and early morning hours of June 27th. The line, which raced east at 60 to 70 mph, produced widespread winds of 40 to 60 mph along and north of Interstate 70. Storm assessment teams from the National Weather Service in St. Louis evaluated the most intense damage which occurred over northeast Missouri and west central Illinois. From the extreme damage that occurred in localized areas, it appears that wind speeds reached 70 to 100 mph. The extensive nature of the damage caused power outages to at least 55,000 customers. Some did not have power return until Tuesday night. Also, there were several reports of flash flooding, especially over northeastern Missouri due to the already saturated soils from previous rains over the past week.

The first tornado formed near Elm Street and Douglas Avenue, north of U.S. Highway 36 at approximately 1245 a.m. CDT. The roof and walls of a corrugated steel building buckled on the west and south sides, along with a portion of the roof. The tornado moved across U.S. Highway 36 and destroyed three unoccupied house trailers. Debris was tossed about 100 yards from the trailers. The tornado continued to move east-southeast and caused roof damage to the town power and water plants on Chestnut Street west of Shelby Street. A portion of the gables holding the roof of the power plant was uplifted and tossed approximately 50 yards to the east. Much of the water plant's roof was removed and tossed 40 to 50 yard to the east. The tornado then caused minor roof damage on homes and snapped numerous large trees about 10 to 20 feet from the base. Some of the large branches fell on top of vehicles. The tornado then caused extensive damage to the roof of the two story town museum on Center Street (Highway 15). Several bricks fell to the ground from the top of the museum roof. Additional tree damage was found east and southeast of the town museum building. The path length was 1.15 miles with width varying between 50 and 70 yards. The tornado was rated an EF1.

The second tornadic damage track was just to the south of the first tornado. It began west of South Center Street, where significant tree damage occurred. Some of the trees fell on top of homes. The tornado traveled east-southeast and hit an assisted living home on Shelbina Avenue. Roof damage was found at this location. Other large trees were damaged in the vicinity of the assisted living home. The tornado continued to the east-southeast and destroyed a large machine shed built in 2008. The east, south and west sides and the roof of the machine shed were tossed into several corn fields. The tornado then crossed County Road 441, where it hit a tree line with several trees snapped 15 to 20 feet from the base and tree trunk diameters ranging from 1 to 2.5 feet. The width of the damage in this area was 50 yards. The path length was 1.22 miles with a max width of 70 yards. The tornado was rated an EF1.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:55 UTC and running to 06:33 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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), 160 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:48 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

6 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.