Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2014

EF0 tornado, Saint Charles County, Missouri, September 9, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 1.7 miles across Saint Charles County on September 9, 2014, touching down at 9:10 PM CDT and reaching 25 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.

  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
September 9, 2014
Touchdown
9:10 PM CDT (02:10 UTC)
Lifted
9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
1.7 miles (2.7 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Saint Charles County
Touchdown point
38.756, -90.592
Lift-off point
38.773, -90.570
Record number
1409092010-01

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:20 UTC13:33 UTCFlood WarningLSX

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 00:37 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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

2.2 hours before the tornado, 229 km from the path. September 10, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2014-09-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 507 joules per kilogram, CIN -168, lifted condensation level 1048 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, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2014-09-10The 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 42 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
507 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-168 J/kg
Surface CAPE
436 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1048 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
42 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-8 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 11 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:10 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
23:12 UTCFLOODSt. LouisSt. Louis City, MOMULTIPLE MOTOR VEHICLES STRANDED IN FLOOD WATERS IN NORTH ST. LOUIS CITY.
23:55 UTCTSTM WND GST 40DutzowWarren, MO
00:08 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sw New MelleSt. Charles, MOMULTIPLE TREES SNAPPED NEAR INTERSECTION OF WEST HIGHWAY D AND SNEAK ROAD.
01:51 UTCHAIL 0.52 Nw Weldon SpringSt. Charles, MO
02:00 UTCHAIL 0.25HarvesterSt. Charles, MO
02:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGSt. PetersSt. Charles, MOWINDOW BLOWN OUT OF A RESIDENCE ALONG WITH SHINGLES OFF OF A ROOF. ALSO MULTIPLE TREES AND FENCES DOWN.
02:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGSt. PetersSt. Charles, MOWINDOWS BLOWN OUT OF A RESIDENCE. ALSO MULTIPLE TREES AND FENCES DOWN.
02:10 UTCTORNADO2 S St. PetersSt. Charles, MOTREES UPROOTED AND SNAPPED ALONG A ROUGHLY TWO MILE PATH... HOUSE AND FENCE DAMAGE TO A RESIDENCE
02:12 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.71Weldon SpringSt. Charles, MORAINFALL OVER LAST TWO HOURS.
02:18 UTCTSTM WND GST 40St. PetersSt. Charles, MO
02:48 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.5UnionFranklin, MORAINFALL TOTAL FOR TODAY.

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 September 9, 2014

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 94:29 PM CDTEF1Otoe, NE7.7965$50,000
September 95:50 PM CDTEF0Atchison, MO4.925
September 97:10 PM CDTEF0Holt, MO3.030
September 97:35 PM CDTEF0Holt, MO0.125
September 97:40 PM CDTEF0Holt, MO0.125
September 910:22 PM CDTEF0DeKalb, MO0.825

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.