Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2013
EF1 tornado, Cedar Spgs to Caplinger Mills, Missouri, January 29, 2013
From Cedar Spgs to Caplinger Mills, this EF1 tornado ran 2.7 miles across Cedar County on January 29, 2013, touching down at 11:00 AM CST and reaching 200 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- January 29, 2013
- Touchdown
- 11:00 AM CST (17:00 UTC)
- Lifted
- 11:03 AM CST (17:03 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 2.7 miles (4.3 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- County
- Cedar County
- Touchdown point
- 37.839, -93.882
- Lift-off point
- 37.836, -93.833
- Record number
- 1301291100-01
The damage survey
4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 99 mph.
- Outbuilding lost half of roof. Shingle damage to house. Several hardwoods uprooted.
- Several trees uprooted and snapped.
- Portable carport destroyed. Pole barn door blown out and corner pole lifted out of ground and moved about six inches. Trees snapped along driveway.
- Several hardwood trees uprooted.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong cold front and associated deep trough moving across the central Plains states and Midwest caused a round of strong to severe thunderstorms to move across the Missouri Ozarks.
A NWS survey indicated that an EF-1 tornado touched down near Highway 39 and County Road 10500. The path was about 2 and a half miles long and about 200 yards wide. The tornado lifted along County Road 400 just east of County Road 1201. The tornado destroyed a portable carport and damaged or destroyed several outbuildings and barns. Several homes also received minor roof damage and numerous trees were uprooted or snapped.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
1 minute of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:59 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:15 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:28 UTC and running to 18:36 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13:28 UTC | 18:36 UTC | Tornado Watch | SGF |
| 16:46 UTC | 17:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 16:59 UTC | 17:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | SGF |
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 16:21 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.
Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z
5.0 hours before the tornado, 104 km from the path. January 29, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 285 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -8 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 265 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 728 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 257 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 224 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 1.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.9 K/km
Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z
7.0 hours after it, 104 km from the path. January 30, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 6 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -2 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 33 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 578 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 87 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -404 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -559 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.4 K/km
The radar
The Springfield radar (KSGF), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:57 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:00 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Sse Cedar Springs | Cedar, MO | A NWS SURVEY INDICATED AN EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR HIGHWAY 39 NEAR COUNTY ROAD 10500. THE PATH WAS ABOUT 2 MILES LONG AND 200 YARDS WIDE. THE TORNADO LIFTED NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF COUNTY ROAD 1201 AND 1251. HALF A |
| 17:02 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Cedar Springs | Cedar, MO | BARN AND POWER LINES REPORTED DOWN OR DAMAGED. |
| 17:11 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 10 Nnw Stockton | Cedar, MO | ROOF AND SIDING DAMAGE AT A HOUSE. A POWER POLE SNAPPED. LARGE TREE DOWN. |
| 17:18 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | Osceola | St. Clair, MO | |
| 17:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nne Gerster | St. Clair, MO | HIGHWAT T HAD NUMEROUS TREES DOWN SOME STRUCTURE DAMAGE. TREES BLOCKING SIDE ROADS. |
| 17:20 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Nne Gerster | St. Clair, MO | PRELIMINARY REPORT FROM SURVEY TEAM INDICATES AN EF1 TORNADO TOUCH DOWN 4 MILES NORTHEAST OF GERSTER OR 5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF QUINCY NEAR HIGHWAY TT. WINDS WERE ESTIMATED AT 90 TO 100 MPH. THERE WAS TREE DAMAGE AND SOME U |
| 17:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Quincy | Hickory, MO | TWO TREES REPORTED DOWN AND BLOCKING ROUTE 83. POWER LINES REPORTED DOWN. SHED ALSO BLEW ACROSS THE ROAD. |
| 17:36 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | Warsaw | Benton, MO | DIME SIZED HAIL REPORTED IN WARSAW. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of January 29, 2013
20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 29 | 6:48 AM CST | EF1 | Logan, OK | 1.1 | 40 | $200,000 | ||
| January 29 | 11:15 AM CST | EF1 | St. Clair, MO | 8.6 | 400 | $225,000 | ||
| January 29 | 2:55 PM CST | EF2 | Crawford, OK to AR | 9.0 | 700 | $20,000 | ||
| January 29 | 3:14 PM CST | EF1 | Warren, MO | 1.2 | 40 | |||
| January 29 | 3:34 PM CST | EF1 | Washington, AR | 4.2 | 400 | $500,000 | ||
| January 29 | 3:36 PM CST | EF0 | Lincoln, MO | 1.7 | 30 | |||
| January 29 | 3:57 PM CST | EF1 | Madison, AR | 2.0 | 350 | $250,000 | ||
| January 29 | 6:15 PM CST | EF0 | Wood, TX | 0.2 | 325 | $5,000 | ||
| January 29 | 6:48 PM CST | EF0 | Bolivar, MS | 0.5 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| January 29 | 8:01 PM CST | EF0 | Pulaski, AR | 5.3 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| January 29 | 8:14 PM CST | EF1 | Ripley, MO | 0.3 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| January 29 | 8:45 PM CST | EF2 | Butler, MO | 3.4 | 100 | $60,000 | ||
| January 29 | 8:51 PM CST | EF0 | Drew, AR | 3.6 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| January 29 | 9:13 PM CST | EF1 | Cape Girardeau, MO | 5.5 | 100 | $250,000 | ||
| January 29 | 9:13 PM CST | EF1 | Cape Girardeau, MO | 6.8 | 100 | $80,000 | ||
| January 29 | 9:36 PM CST | EF2 | West Carroll Parish, LA | 5.4 | 100 | $250,000 | ||
| January 29 | 9:38 PM CST | EF0 | Franklin, IL | 0.6 | 75 | |||
| January 29 | 10:16 PM CST | EF2 | Saline, IL | 1.0 | 125 | 2 | $200,000 | |
| January 29 | 11:10 PM CST | EF1 | Bolivar, MS | 5.5 | 150 | $175,000 | ||
| January 29 | 11:36 PM CST | EF0 | Calloway, KY | 2.1 | 100 | $25,000 |
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.