Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2014
EF2 tornado, Sibley to Henrietta, Missouri, May 10, 2014
From Sibley to Henrietta, this EF2 tornado ran 12.6 miles across Ray and Jackson counties on May 10, 2014, touching down at 5:15 PM CDT and reaching 500 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 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado
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
- EF2
- Date
- May 10, 2014
- Touchdown
- 5:15 PM CDT (22:15 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:55 PM CDT (22:55 UTC)
- On the ground
- 40 minutes
- Path length
- 12.6 miles (20.3 km)
- Path width
- 500 yards (457 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Counties
- Ray and Jackson counties
- Touchdown point
- 39.212, -94.193
- Lift-off point
- 39.222, -93.978
- Record number
- 1405101615-01
The damage survey
21 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.
- Tornado began here and produced minor tree damage.
- Wooden transmission poles damaged / broken. Low end EF1.
- School roof gone, but the walls are in tact.
- lose of trusses windows, doors.
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
During the day on Saturday, May 10 several supercell thunderstorms formed across western and northern Missouri. The first cells formed around 3 pm in far northern Missouri, and produced very large hail up to the size of softballs! These softball sized hail stones fell near the city of Trenton, Missouri in Grundy County. Later in the evening another cluster of storms formed directly over the Kansas City metro area, and after several minutes of maturing, a dominant supercell moved east of the metro and produced a strong tornado west of Orrick, Missouri. Unfortunately the tornado moved into the town of Orrick and damaged many structures; however, no injuries were reported with this tornado. The storm then went on to produce another tornado near the city of Marshall, Missouri in Saline County. Also remarkable with this supercell was that a storm chaser near the tornado reported winds in excess of 100 mph near Marshall. By the late evening hours most of the storm activity either dissipated or moved out of the area.
A tornado formed near the Jackson and Ray County line along the Missouri River. The tornado crossed into Ray County about 2 minutes after forming in wooded areas along the river.
This tornado is a continuation of the tornado that formed in Jackson County Missouri, just south of Sibley, Missouri and trekked eastward paralleling Highway 210 just north of the Missouri River. The tornado entered the city of Orrick, Missouri, causing widespread damage in the town with the worst damage rating the tornado an EF-2. The school in town was nearly destroyed, causing classes to come to an end for the remainder of the school year. The tornado continued east of town and dissipated just southwest of Henrietta, Missouri.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
0 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:15 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:26 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:31 UTC and running to 02:29 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:31 UTC | 02:29 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | EAX |
| 21:56 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | EAX |
| 22:15 UTC | 22:26 UTC | Tornado 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 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.
Topeka, KS (KFOE), 12:00Z
10.3 hours before the tornado, 136 km from the path. May 10, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -91095 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1969 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 184 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 179 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
Topeka, KS (KFOE), 00:00Z
1.7 hours after it, 136 km from the path. May 11, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 17 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -153 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1215 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2314 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 217 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 239 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.1 K/km
The radar
The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 48 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:15 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:20 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 3 E Smithville | Clay, MO | |
| 21:20 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 S Gladstone | Clay, MO | |
| 21:23 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 4 Wsw Claycomo | Clay, MO | REPORT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. TIME ESTIMATED. |
| 21:24 UTC | HAIL 1 | 3 E Smithville | Clay, MO | |
| 21:27 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Gladstone | Clay, MO | |
| 21:29 UTC | HAIL 1 | Gladstone | Clay, MO | |
| 21:29 UTC | HAIL 1 | Gladstone | Clay, MO | |
| 21:30 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Nw Kearney | Clay, MO | |
| 21:35 UTC | HAIL 2 | 1 N Gladstone | Clay, MO | REPORTED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. DELAYED REPORT. |
| 21:35 UTC | HAIL 2.5 | 2 Nnw Gladstone | Clay, MO | |
| 21:36 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | Holt | Clay, MO | RELAYED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. DELAYED REPORT. |
| 21:38 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | Liberty | Clay, MO | |
| 21:40 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | Liberty | Clay, MO | |
| 21:42 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 1 N Liberty | Clay, MO | |
| 21:42 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 2 W Liberty | Clay, MO | |
| 21:45 UTC | HAIL 1 | Smithville | Clay, MO | RELAYED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. DELAYED REPORT. |
| 22:00 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | 2 Nw Missouri City | Clay, MO | DIME TO PING PONG BALL SIZED HAIL. |
| 22:00 UTC | HAIL 2 | Liberty | Clay, MO | RELAYED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. DELAYED REPORT. |
| 22:16 UTC | TORNADO | 2 N Sibley | Ray, MO | CONFIRMED ON LOCAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE |
| 22:16 UTC | TORNADO | 2 N Sibley | Ray, MO | CONFIRMED ON LOCAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE |
| 22:31 UTC | TORNADO | Orrick | Ray, MO | TORNADO DAMAGE REPORTED. ACCESS TO ORRICK IS BLOCKED. |
| 22:32 UTC | TORNADO | 1 W Orrick | Ray, MO | TORNADO STILL ONGOING VIA BROADCAST MEDIA HELICOPTER VIDEO FOOTAGE. |
| 22:51 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 1 S Richmond | Ray, MO | |
| 23:06 UTC | TORNADO | 2 N Lexington | Ray, MO | CONFIRMED BY STORM CHASER |
| 23:20 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Concordia | Lafayette, MO | TWO FUNNEL CLOUDS REPORTED ON I-70 IN CONCORDIA. |
| 23:20 UTC | HAIL 1 | 4 Se Braymer | Carroll, MO | |
| 23:48 UTC | HAIL 1 | 3 W Waverly | Lafayette, MO |
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 May 10, 2014
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.