EF1 tornado, Kelso to Thebes Jct, Missouri, July 8, 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 8, 2015

Touchdown

8:35 PM CDT (01:35 UTC)

Lifted

8:47 PM CDT (01:47 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

6.3 miles (10.1 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$66,000

Crop damage

$10,000

Counties

Scott and Alexander counties

Touchdown point

37.172, -89.525

Lift-off point

37.220, -89.429

Record number

1507081935-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

• Several of the trees were not healthy.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Isolated severe thunderstorms developed ahead of a migratory surface low over central Missouri. In the wake of early-day showers departing the Lower Ohio Valley, pockets of sunshine resulted in modest air mass destabilization. Boundary layer dew points in the 70's contributed to storm development. Notable strengthening of the 850 to 700 mb wind field was sufficient for isolated supercells, including a tornadic supercell over Scott County.

Isolated severe thunderstorms developed ahead of a migratory surface low over central Missouri. In the wake of early-day showers departing the Lower Ohio Valley, pockets of sunshine resulted in modest air mass destabilization. Boundary layer dew points in the 70's contributed to storm development. Notable strengthening of the 850 to 700 mb wind field was sufficient for isolated supercells, including a tornadic supercell that crossed the Mississippi River into Alexander County.

Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped off. Several outbuildings were destroyed, including a large shed. Three camper trailers were overturned. One of the campers sustained major damage. There was shingle and siding damage to a few homes. There was clearly a well-defined convergent path through a corn field. Peak winds were estimated near 95 mph. The path continued across the Mississippi River into Alexander County, Illinois.

The tornado crossed the Mississippi River from Scott County, Missouri. The tornado was in its weakening stage as it crossed the river. A path of tree damage was visible on the Illinois side of the river, ending just inside the Shawnee National Forest. No structural damage was reported. Peak winds were estimated to be around 95 mph on the Missouri side of the track.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:05 UTC and running to 03:32 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 00:39 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 Paducah radar (KPAH), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:33 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

3 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.