Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2014
EF1 tornado, South Liberty to Liberty City Arpt, Missouri, June 30, 2014
From South Liberty to Liberty City Arpt, this EF1 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Clay County on June 30, 2014, touching down at 9:34 PM CDT and reaching 200 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 30, 2014
- Touchdown
- 9:34 PM CDT (02:34 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:36 PM CDT (02:36 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.8 miles (1.3 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Clay County
- Touchdown point
- 39.214, -94.374
- Lift-off point
- 39.207, -94.362
- Record number
- 1406302034-01
The damage survey
4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.
- Significant, widespread tree damage
- minor damage...maybe still straight line
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
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.
This tornado did significant tree damage southeast of Liberty, MO near the intersection of Raines Rd and Highway 210.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
1 minute of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:33 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:46 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:29 UTC and running to 04:11 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:29 UTC | 04:11 UTC | Tornado Watch | EAX |
| 02:26 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | EAX |
| 02:33 UTC | 02:46 UTC | Tornado Warning | EAX |
| 02:59 UTC | 03:22 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | 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
2.6 hours before the tornado, 112 km from the path. July 1, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 4172 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -21 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 6459 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1387 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 241 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 265 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 3.2
- Supercell composite
- 34.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.0 K/km
Topeka, KS (KFOE), 12:00Z
9.4 hours after it, 112 km from the path. July 1, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -96074 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 24 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2247 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -7 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 65 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.7 K/km
The radar
The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:36 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:59 UTC | HAIL 1 | 2 N Gladstone | Clay, MO | QUARTER-SIZED HAIL AND 60 MPH WINDS REPORTED BY TRAINED SPOTTER NEAR NEWMARK AND MAPLEWOODS DRIVE. |
| 02:33 UTC | HAIL 1 | 2 N Gladstone | Clay, MO | QUARTER-SIZED HAIL AND 60 MPH WINDS REPORTED BY TRAINED SPOTTER NEAR NEWMARK AND MAPLEWOODS DRIVE. |
| 02:34 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Se Liberty | Clay, MO | POSSIBLE TORNADO...LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTS 2 MILE LONG DAMAGE PATH ALONG RAINES RD. NUMEROUS TREES TOPPED OR UPROOTED AND BLOCKING THE INTERSECTIONS OF HIGHWAY 210...NEBO HILLS RD AND RAINES RD. POWER LINES DOWN. |
| 02:39 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Liberty | Clay, MO | PIECE OF ROOF BLOWN OFF OFFICE BUILDING. MULTIPLE REPORTS OF TREES BLOWN ONTO CARS |
| 02:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | S Liberty | Clay, MO | TREE DAMAGE IN SOUTH LIBERTY |
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 30, 2014
45 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 30 | 12:42 PM CDT | EF1 | Adair, IA | 7.1 | 200 | $200,000 | ||
| June 30 | 1:02 PM CDT | EF1 | Story, IA | 12.0 | 460 | $220,000 | ||
| June 30 | 1:13 PM CDT | EF1 | Madison, IA | 1.3 | 75 | $10,000 | ||
| June 30 | 1:15 PM CDT | EF0 | Marshall, IA | 6.5 | 150 | $52,000 | ||
| June 30 | 1:15 PM CDT | EF1 | Madison, IA | 6.4 | 400 | $100,000 | ||
| June 30 | 1:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Warren, IA | 2.0 | 190 | $1,000 | ||
| June 30 | 2:02 PM CDT | EF2 | Tama, IA | 3.7 | 150 | $150,000 | ||
| June 30 | 2:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Benton, IA | 0.4 | 75 | |||
| June 30 | 4:40 PM CDT | EF0 | Nodaway, MO | 3.5 | 200 | |||
| June 30 | 5:20 PM MDT | EF0 | Baca, CO | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| June 30 | 6:43 PM CDT | EF1 | Worth, MO | 2.1 | 300 | |||
| June 30 | 7:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Harrison, MO | 3.0 | 200 | |||
| June 30 | 9:16 PM CDT | EF1 | LaSalle, IL | 1.5 | 50 | $250,000 | ||
| June 30 | 9:38 PM CDT | EF1 | Kendall, IL | 1.1 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| June 30 | 9:44 PM CDT | EF0 | Grundy, IL | 2.2 | 50 | |||
| June 30 | 9:55 PM CDT | EF1 | Will, IL | 3.1 | 75 | $500,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:22 PM CDT | EF1 | Kankakee, IL | 10.3 | 150 | $20,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:23 PM CDT | EF0 | Kankakee, IL | 3.1 | 45 | $133,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:24 PM CDT | EF1 | Kankakee, IL | 2.7 | 110 | $158,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Kankakee, IL | 5.5 | 450 | $166,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:26 PM CDT | EF1 | Kankakee, IL | 3.2 | 110 | $166,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:29 PM CDT | EF1 | Kankakee, IL to IN | 15.8 | 175 | |||
| June 30 | 10:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Kankakee, IL | 4.4 | 295 | $8,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:32 PM CDT | EF2 | Kankakee, IL | 3.9 | 240 | $500,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:33 PM CDT | EF0 | Lake, IL to IN | 0.7 | 120 | |||
| June 30 | 10:33 PM CDT | EF1 | Lake, IL to IN | 8.7 | 415 | $256,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:37 PM CDT | EF1 | Lake, IL to IN | 1.6 | 175 | |||
| June 30 | 10:38 PM CDT | EF1 | Lake, IN | 3.8 | 260 | $86,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:39 PM CDT | EF1 | Lake, IN | 3.2 | 370 | |||
| June 30 | 10:42 PM CDT | EF1 | Lake, IN | 2.2 | 315 | $28,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:42 PM CDT | EF1 | Newton, IN | 13.2 | 395 | $180,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:44 PM CDT | EF2 | Lake, IN | 3.2 | 295 | $250,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:46 PM CDT | EF1 | Lake, IN | 2.1 | 185 | $25,000 | ||
| June 30 | 10:56 PM CDT | EF1 | Jasper, IN | 1.9 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| June 30 | 11:11 PM CDT | EF1 | LaPorte, IN | 0.3 | 200 | |||
| June 30 | 11:24 PM CDT | EF1 | LaPorte, IN | 4.7 | 200 | |||
| June 30 | 11:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Starke, IN | 4.9 | 400 | |||
| June 30 | 11:29 PM CDT | EF1 | Starke, IN | 4.8 | 400 | |||
| June 30 | 12:35 AM EDT | EF1 | Marshall, IN | 6.8 | 150 | |||
| June 30 | 12:41 AM EDT | EF1 | Marshall, IN | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| June 30 | 1:06 AM EDT | EF1 | Kosciusko, IN | 0.6 | 150 | |||
| June 30 | 1:06 AM EDT | EF0 | Kosciusko, IN | 1.8 | 50 | |||
| June 30 | 1:08 AM EDT | EF1 | Wabash, IN | 7.0 | 150 | |||
| June 30 | 1:22 AM EDT | EF1 | Whitley, IN | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| June 30 | 1:38 AM EDT | EF1 | LaGrange, IN | 0.9 | 50 |
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.