Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2012

EF0 tornado, Bucoda, Missouri, September 1, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Dunklin County on September 1, 2012, touching down at 6:03 PM CDT and reaching 25 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
EF0
Date
September 1, 2012
Touchdown
6:03 PM CDT (23:03 UTC)
Lifted
6:04 PM CDT (23:04 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
Dunklin County
Touchdown point
36.090, -90.215
Lift-off point
36.091, -90.215
Record number
1209011703-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Remnants of Hurricane Isaac moved northward into the Missouri Bootheel on September 1st, 2012. Numerous showers and thunderstorms occurred across the area as a result. Some thunderstorms became severe producing damaging winds and one tornado.

A tornado briefly touched down near the intersection of Highway N and US Highway 412 near Bucoda. A farm shed was damaged as well as the equipment inside.

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

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:57 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:40 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:49 UTC and running to 02:52 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:49 UTC02:52 UTCTornado WatchMEG
21:19 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningMEG
21:47 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningMEG
21:55 UTC22:30 UTCTornado WarningMEG
22:15 UTC22:40 UTCTornado WarningMEG
22:57 UTC23:40 UTCTornado WarningMEG

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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), 12:00Z

11.1 hours before the tornado, 142 km from the path. September 1, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2012-09-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1827 joules per kilogram, CIN -44, lifted condensation level 551 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2012-09-01The 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 -58 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
1827 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-44 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2260 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
551 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-58 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.9 hours after it, 142 km from the path. September 2, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2012-09-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2103 joules per kilogram, CIN -34, lifted condensation level 1167 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2012-09-02The 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 121 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 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
2103 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-34 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3920 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1167 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
121 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
137 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
7.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:04 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
21:45 UTCTORNADOQulinButler, MOTORNADO ON THE GROUND NEAR QULIN
23:03 UTCTORNADOBucodaDunklin, MOSTORM CHASER AND TRAINED SPOTTERS REPORTED FUNNEL CLOUD THEN TORNADO ON GROUND WITH A DEBRIS FIELD. LAW ENFORCEMENT CONFIRMED TORNADO. DAMAGE REPORTED...A LARGE BARN DESTROYED.
23:20 UTCTORNADOScobevilleDunklin, MOFUNNEL CLOUD AND BRIEF TOUCH DOWN ON Y HIGHWAY CC SOUTH OF KENNET.
23:30 UTCTORNADOSw HaytiPemiscot, MOFUNNEL CLOUD...POSSIBLE TORNADO JUST SOUTHWEST OF HAYTI.
00:02 UTCTORNADO6 N CaruthersvillePemiscot, MOBRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN HIGHWAY 79 AND GREAT RIVER ROAD.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 1, 2012

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 111:48 AM CDTEF0Woodford, IL0.120
September 112:03 PM CDTEF0Woodford, IL0.720
September 112:05 PM CDTEF0Woodford, IL2.375$1,000
September 112:32 PM CDTEF0Marshall, IL0.120
September 11:08 PM CDTEF0Stark, IL1.350
September 11:11 PM CDTEF0Stark, IL1.120
September 11:24 PM CDTEF0Stark, IL0.950
September 14:19 PM CDTEF2Clay, AR0.975$5.0 million
September 14:22 PM CDTEF0Clay, AR0.125
September 14:32 PM CDTEF0Butler, MO3.020
September 14:43 PM CDTEF0Butler, MO4.320
September 14:20 PM MDTEF0Cassia, ID1.020
September 14:40 PM MDTEF0Cassia, ID1.020
September 16:41 PM EDTEF0Marion, IN0.125

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.