Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2014
EF1 tornado, Princeton Powells Ar to Ravanna, Missouri, June 29, 2014
From Princeton Powells Ar to Ravanna, this EF1 tornado ran 6.3 miles across Mercer County on June 29, 2014, touching down at 9:55 PM CDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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
- June 29, 2014
- Touchdown
- 9:55 PM CDT (02:55 UTC)
- Lifted
- 10:12 PM CDT (03:12 UTC)
- On the ground
- 17 minutes
- Path length
- 6.3 miles (10.2 km)
- Path width
- 300 yards (274 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Mercer County
- Touchdown point
- 40.353, -93.486
- Lift-off point
- 40.388, -93.375
- Record number
- 1406292055-01
What the Weather Service recorded
An extremely unstable environment was in place during this time period. On the evening of the 29th, several super cell thunderstorms producing tornadoes tracked across northwestern and northern Missouri producing multiple weak tornadoes. Storms erupted again the evening of the 30th and again produced several weak tornadoes across northern Missouri. The storms eventually evolved into a southward advancing line the evening of June 30th, producing another weak tornado in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
The tornado damaged a single family home and destroyed several hog storage buildings.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
19 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:36 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:08 UTC and running to 03:57 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:08 UTC | 03:57 UTC | Tornado Watch | EAX |
| 02:27 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | EAX |
| 02:36 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | EAX |
| 02:58 UTC | 03:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | EAX |
| 03:38 UTC | 04:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | EAX |
| 03:57 UTC | 04:49 UTC | Tornado Watch | EAX |
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 01:00 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.
Topeka, KS (KFOE), 00:00Z
2.9 hours before the tornado, 243 km from the path. June 30, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 4952 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -3 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 6708 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 878 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 49 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 91 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 145 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.8
- Supercell composite
- 9.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.5 K/km
Topeka, KS (KFOE), 12:00Z
9.1 hours after it, 243 km from the path. June 30, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2105 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -355 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2616 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1205 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 254 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 225 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.8 K/km
The radar
The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 153 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:53 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Princeton | Mercer, MO | SEVERAL LIVE MAPLE LIMBS 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER BROKEN OFF...TIME ESTIMATED |
| 03:00 UTC | HAIL 1 | Newtown | Sullivan, MO | PUBLIC REPORT RELAYED BY EMERGENCY MANAGER. |
| 03:01 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Ese Princeton | Mercer, MO | STORM SPOTTERS CONFIRM TREES DOWN AND POWER POLES SNAPPED ON HIGHWAY E A COUPLE MILES EAST OF HIGHWAY C. |
| 03:04 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Wsw Newtown | Mercer, MO | TREES AND POWERLINES BLOCKING HIGHWAY E. POSSIBLE BARN DAMAGE |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 29, 2014
14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 29 | 6:05 AM CDT | EF1 | Gove, KS | 1.0 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| June 29 | 7:28 PM CDT | EF0 | Hamilton, IA | 2.0 | 40 | |||
| June 29 | 8:08 PM CDT | EF0 | Shelby, IA | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| June 29 | 8:18 PM CDT | EF1 | Grundy, IA | 1.9 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| June 29 | 8:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Hardin, IA | 1.3 | 75 | $1,000 | ||
| June 29 | 9:12 PM CDT | EF0 | Buchanan, MO | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| June 29 | 9:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Shawnee, KS | 1.6 | 30 | |||
| June 29 | 10:00 PM CDT | EF1 | Grant, WI | 8.2 | 600 | $410,000 | ||
| June 29 | 10:18 PM CDT | EF2 | Iowa, WI | 29.1 | 400 | $3.5 million | ||
| June 29 | 10:26 PM CDT | EF2 | Iowa, WI | 5.0 | 200 | $400,000 | ||
| June 29 | 10:36 PM CDT | EF0 | Jones, IA | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 29 | 11:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Dane, WI | 2.3 | 500 | $50,000 | ||
| June 29 | 12:30 AM CDT | EF1 | Carroll, IL | 2.2 | 600 | $50,000 | ||
| June 29 | 12:45 AM CDT | EF1 | Schuyler, MO | 4.7 | 300 |
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.