EF1 tornado, New Florence to Bellflower, Missouri, May 25, 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

May 25, 2011

Touchdown

2:15 PM CDT (19:15 UTC)

Lifted

2:22 PM CDT (19:22 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

7.1 miles (11.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Montgomery County

Touchdown point

38.943, -91.470

Lift-off point

39.016, -91.377

Record number

1105251315-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Last damage of this track.
• Sherriff deputy witnessed tornado on the ground in open field. With no further damage seen northeast of this location, we assume this is the end point.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Strong area of low pressure moved into the forecast area with a dry line out ahead of the main cold front. Storms fired up along and just ahead of the dry line beginning in the early afternoon hours. There were numerous reports of large hail with isolated damaging winds and tornadoes with this event.

The tornado touched down just east of Highway 19 on County Road 219. The tornado moved northeast to County Road 221, just south of County Road 226, where it struck a small farm causing extensive tree damage and minor damage to some of the outbuildings. The tornado continued northeast to County Road 226, just east of intersection with County Road 221 where it affected another farmstead. At this location, a metal machine shed lost most of the roofing with some of the tin blown approximately one half mile to the north-northeast. Also, a grain bin was partially caved in and there was more significant tree damage. On the next road north, County Road 227, a metal machine shed had the eastern portion of the roof partially caved in. There was also minor tree damage. On Highway V, approximately 2 miles east of Highway 161, another farm sustained damage. Three outbuildings were destroyed and a full grown oak tree was snapped at the base. Metal roofing was tossed northeast at least one half mile with a couple pieces wrapped around high tension power lines to the north of Highway V. This was the most intense damage along the tornado path and was rated high end EF-1. The tornado continued moving northeast causing minor tree damage along County Road 153 and finally dissipated in an open field west of County Road 141 about two miles northwest of Bellflower, MO. The maximum width of the tornado was 100 yards and the path length was 7 miles.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:05 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:09 UTC and running to 22:03 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:23 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), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:13 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

93 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 94 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.