EF0 tornado, Danville to New Florence, Missouri, May 31, 2013

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 31, 2013

Touchdown

6:20 PM CDT (23:20 UTC)

Lifted

6:21 PM CDT (23:21 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Montgomery County

Touchdown point

38.942, -91.519

Lift-off point

38.948, -91.512

Record number

1305311720-01

18 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 91 mph.

• Several large trees snapped at the base. One in picture is laying to the northeast.
• Tree was snapped third the way up...landed on top of school bus. Also, numerous large tree branches were blown down.
• Three power poles leaning to east just south of Tower Road, along Highway 161.
• Tree diameters anywhere from 6 to 12 inches inches. Also, minor roof damage to an old machine shed.

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

Storms developed along an outflow boundary that was laid out along the I-70 corridor. The storms produced wind damage, large hail as well as 9 tornadoes. Two of the tornadoes were rated EF3 as they moved through the St. Louis metro area. Also, heavy rain fell causing flash flooding in some locations, which persisted into the early morning hours of June 1st.

A weak tornado briefly touched down along Highway 161 from 2.5 miles south southwest to 2 miles south southwest of Montgomery City. Much of the damage was confined to tree damage. One large tree snapped about a third of the way from the base and fell onto a parked school bus. No one was inside the bus. Before the tornado lifted and dissipated, three power poles were bent about 40 degrees to the northeast. Overall, the tornado path length was half a mile and max path width was 30 yards. The damage was rated as EF0 with max winds of 75 MPH.

A weak tornado briefly touched down about two miles south of Montgomery City along Blue Bird Road. Much of the damage was confined to tree damage. Before lifting and dissipating near the intersection of Blue Bird Road and Bob White Road, the roof of an old machine shed was peeled off to the south. The tornado path length was two tenths of a mile with a max path width of 30 yards. The damage was rated EF0 with max wind speeds of 75 MPH.

A weak tornado touched down 2 miles north northwest of New Florence. Much of the damage was confined to downed trees. The tornado traveled east for about a mile. Before lifting and dissipating, the tornado caused minor siding and soffit damage to a home and uprooted a large tree in the backyard. The tornado path length was 1.06 miles with a max path width of 40 yards. The damage was rated EF0 with max wind speeds of 80 MPH.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:05 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:45 UTC and running to 03:00 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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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.

Washington (FYG), 60 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:19 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 2013 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

35 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.