Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2013

EF0 tornado, Springfield to Sgf Downtown Arpt, Missouri, July 21, 2013

From Springfield to Sgf Downtown Arpt, this EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Greene County on July 21, 2013, touching down at 7:18 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
July 21, 2013
Touchdown
7:18 PM CDT (00:18 UTC)
Lifted
7:19 PM CDT (00:19 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
Greene County
Touchdown point
37.207, -93.272
Lift-off point
37.207, -93.261
Record number
1307211818-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 60 mph.

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 stalled out frontal boundary was across the area. A northwest flow with embedded upper level impulses caused scattered thunderstorms which produced reports of damaging winds and large hail. A tornado was also observed and caused minor damaged on the east side of Springfield.

A NWS storm survey indicated that an EF-0 tornado touched down near the intersection of East Cairo Street and South Pickwick Avenue. The tornado traveled east along East Cairo Street and lifted at the the intersection of East Cairo Street and Glenstone. The tornado caused several large tree branches to be blown down and damage to roofs to several houses along with several power lines to be blown down. Several windows to homes and businesses were broken or blown out. At least two businesses had roof and window damage. Winds were estimated around 60 mph with a path width of 50 yards and about half a mile length.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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), 00:00Z

0.3 hours before the tornado, 58 km from the path. July 22, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2013-07-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1113 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 759 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2013-07-22The 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 126 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 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
1113 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2138 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
759 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

11.7 hours after it, 58 km from the path. July 22, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2013-07-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 101 joules per kilogram, CIN -360, lifted condensation level 2219 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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2013-07-22The 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 20 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
101 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-360 J/kg
Surface CAPE
97 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2219 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
249 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Springfield (SGF), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:52 UTC7971180° 3 kt1011.5
23:47 UTC78.871.60° 0 kt1011.9-RA
23:52 UTC7872320° 4 kt1011.9-RA
00:18 UTC79720° 0 kt1011.9
00:52 UTC7971230° 5 kt1011.9
01:52 UTC7771200° 3 kt1011.9

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

The radar

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 12 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:18 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
00:18 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 E SpringfieldGreene, MOTREES AND POWER LINES DOWN WITH A FEW WINDOWS BLOWN OUT. A STORM SURVEY WILL BE CONDUCTED ON THIS DAMAGE THIS EVENING.
00:18 UTCTORNADO1 Ne SpringfieldGreene, MOA NWS STORM SURVEY INDICATED THAT AN EF-0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF EAST CAIRO STREET AND SOUTH PICKWICK AVENUE. THE TORNADO TRAVELLED EAST ALONG EAST CAIRO STREET AND LIFTED AT THE INTERSECTION OF EA

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 July 21, 2013

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 212:30 PM EDTEF0Saint Johns, FL0.120
July 215:42 PM CDTEF0McHenry, ND4.550
July 219:08 PM CDTEF1Ramsey, ND1.5100

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.