Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2015

EF1 tornado, Mountain to Seligman, Missouri, April 2, 2015

Name: EF1 tornado, Mountain to Seligman, Missouri, April 2, 2015
Start: 2015-04-03T04:25:00.000Z
End: 2015-04-03T04:40:00.000Z
Location: Mountain to Seligman, Missouri

From Mountain to Seligman, this EF1 tornado ran 12.4 miles across McDonald and Barry counties on April 2, 2015, touching down at 11:25 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 of property damage.

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: April 2, 2015
Touchdown: 11:25 PM CDT (04:25 UTC)
Lifted: 11:40 PM CDT (04:40 UTC)
On the ground: 15 minutes
Path length: 12.4 miles (19.9 km)
Path width: 100 yards (91 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $20,000
Counties: McDonald and Barry counties
Touchdown point: 36.530, -94.180
Lift-off point: 36.519, -93.957
Record number: 1504022225-01

The damage survey

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

Also back of house damaged and pontoon boat blown downwind. Hwy E and Bear Hollow Rd.

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

A cold front and associated upper level trough moved through the Missouri Ozarks region. Severe storms with some supercells developed and moved through the Missouri Ozarks with damaging winds, large hail, and several tornadoes were reported. Heavy rainfall and training of storms lead to minor flooding and flash flooding.

An EF-1 tornado started in southeastern McDonald County and moved into southwestern Barry County. There was damage to a house and barn as well as a pontoon boat. Numerous trees were also snapped. Winds were estimated up to 100 mph.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Apr 2, 8:46 PM CDT, 2 hours 39 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPRINGFIELD MO
846 PM CDT THU APR 02 2015

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0844 PM     HAIL             CARL JUNCTION           37.18N 94.57W
04/02/2015  E1.50 INCH       JASPER             MO   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

RFRYE

Local storm report, Apr 2, 8:59 PM CDT, 2 hours 26 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPRINGFIELD MO
859 PM CDT THU APR 02 2015

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0858 PM     HAIL             GOLDEN CITY             37.39N 94.09W
04/02/2015  E1.50 INCH       BARTON             MO   EMERGENCY MNGR

&&

RFRYE

Local storm report, Apr 2, 9:00 PM CDT, 2 hours 25 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPRINGFIELD MO
900 PM CDT THU APR 02 2015

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0859 PM     HAIL             10 W COLUMBUS           37.17N 95.03W
04/02/2015  E1.00 INCH       CHEROKEE           KS   EMERGENCY MNGR

&&

RFRYE

Local storm report, Apr 2, 9:14 PM CDT, 2 hours 11 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPRINGFIELD MO
914 PM CDT THU APR 02 2015

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0911 PM     FUNNEL CLOUD     WEBB CITY               37.15N 94.48W
04/02/2015                   JASPER             MO   FIRE DEPT/RESCUE

&&

RFRYE

Local storm report, Apr 2, 9:19 PM CDT, 2 hours 6 minutes before

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Local storm report, Apr 2, 9:55 PM CDT, 1 hour 30 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPRINGFIELD MO
955 PM CDT THU APR 02 2015

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0950 PM     HAIL             5 E GALENA              37.07N 94.55W
04/02/2015  E0.88 INCH       JASPER             MO   BROADCAST MEDIA

&&

RFRYE

The surface observations

Rogers (Awos) (ROG), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:25 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2015 tornado in Missouri Every tornado in Missouri since 1950 Warnings in force in Missouri now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 2, 2015

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
April 2	5:50 PM MDT	EF0	Cheyenne, CO	1.0	25
April 2	7:24 PM CDT	EF0	Labette, KS	0.0	50
April 2	7:40 PM CDT	EF0	Labette, KS	0.9	75
April 2	7:58 PM CDT	EF0	Cherokee, KS	2.5	100
April 2	8:10 PM CDT	EF0	Labette, KS	0.0	50		$5,000
April 2	9:31 PM EDT	EF0	Clark, OH	0.1	120		$1,000
April 2	8:33 PM CDT	EF0	Barton, MO	2.6	100		$5,000
April 2	9:09 PM CDT	EF0	Jasper, MO	0.1	75		$10,000
April 2	9:59 PM CDT	EF1	Craig, OK	12.3	800	1	$275,000
April 2	12:26 AM CDT	EF1	Douglas, MO	0.9	100		$15,000
April 2	12:40 AM CDT	EF1	Boone, AR	6.9	300		$500,000
April 2	12:52 AM CDT	EF2	Howell, MO	7.6	440		$600,000

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.