EF1 tornado, Racket to Warsaw, Missouri, July 1, 2015

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

July 1, 2015

Touchdown

9:56 PM CDT (02:56 UTC)

Lifted

10:03 PM CDT (03:03 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.3 miles (5.2 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Benton County

Touchdown point

38.284, -93.428

Lift-off point

38.243, -93.397

Record number

1507012056-01

A slow moving front caused multiple rounds of thunderstorms which led to severe weather and flash flooding across the Missouri Ozarks.

A NWS storm survey concluded that a EF-1 tornado touched down on the west side of Warsaw. The estimated maximum wind speeds were up to 95 mph. The tornado touched down about 3 miles northwest of Warsaw and lift just west of downtown Warsaw. The path width was estimated to be around a quarter of a mile wide and was on the ground for over 3 miles. Numerous trees were uprooted along the path. A metal building was damaged. A boat dock was flipped and heavily damaged with 7 boats sunk at the dock. A fireworks tent was blown over. There were a couple of trees that fell on to recreational vehicles at a RV park.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:51 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:04 UTC and running to 05:00 UTC.

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 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 00:58 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 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.

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:58 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.