EF2 tornado, Diehlstadt, Missouri, June 4, 2012

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 4, 2012

Touchdown

8:44 PM CDT (01:44 UTC)

Lifted

8:45 PM CDT (01:45 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

3

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Scott County

Touchdown point

36.974, -89.430

Lift-off point

36.966, -89.430

Record number

1206041944-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Approximately 50 feet of 5 foot tall wooden fencing blown down.
• Tree uprooted and a sign was blown down.
• Fatalities: 1 Male Age 70, 1 Male Age 50, 1 Male Age 48.\nMobile Home Undercarriage blown approximately 100 yards. All of mobile home was carried away from the home site 30 feet to 100 plus yards. Mobile Home was not tied down.
• 2 Large warehouse buildings/barns had approximately 20 to 30% of their roofs removed.

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

Thunderstorms increased and spread southeast through the evening hours. Storm development was focused along and southwest of a frontal boundary that extended southeast from a weak surface low near St. Louis. A favorable combination of wind shear and instability near the boundary supported a few sustained severe storms with large hail, damaging winds, and a tornado.

A single wide mobile home was demolished. The undercarriage was blown 100 yards. A father and his two adult sons, who were inside the home, were killed. Highway 77 was shut down in Diehlstadt. Numerous power lines were down. Several large warehouse buildings sustained partial roof loss and moderate structural damage. Several trees were snapped or uprooted. Propane leaks were reported. Fencing and signs were blown down. The tornado damage was on the eastern edge of a larger area of downburst wind damage. Peak winds were estimated near 115 mph.

The deaths

3 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:43 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:26 UTC and running to 02:51 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. 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.

Cairo (CIR), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:42 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 2012 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.