Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2015

EF0 tornado, Caledonia, Missouri, July 8, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Washington County on July 8, 2015, touching down at 6:43 PM CDT and reaching 100 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
July 8, 2015
Touchdown
6:43 PM CDT (23:43 UTC)
Lifted
6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Washington County
Touchdown point
37.783, -90.752
Lift-off point
37.783, -90.749
Record number
1507081743-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated severe thunderstorms developed on July 8th. One of the storms produced a brief tornado.

A tornado briefly touched down north of Caledonia in a wooded area. It was captured on video by two different trained spotters. Tree debris could be seen in the air once it touched down. No other damage was found or reported. It was rated EF0 with a max path length of approximately two tenths of a mile and an estimated path width of 100 yards.

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

The warnings

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 23:09 UTC and running to 02:42 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:42 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningLSX
23:09 UTC02:42 UTCTornado WatchLSX

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.

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

11.7 hours before the tornado, 287 km from the path. July 8, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2015-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 461 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 533 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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2015-07-08The 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 182 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.193958Sfc1 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
461 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
128 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
533 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
182 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
117 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

0.3 hours after it, 287 km from the path. July 9, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2015-07-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 267 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 519 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2015-07-09The 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 61 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 knots.193958Sfc1 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
267 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
629 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
519 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Farmington (FAM), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:55 UTC82.473.4190° 12 kt171014.6
22:15 UTC82.471.6190° 12 kt171014.6
22:35 UTC80.673.4180° 11 kt1014.6
22:55 UTC80.673.4180° 15 kt191014.2
23:15 UTC80.671.6190° 15 kt191014.2
23:35 UTC78.873.4190° 12 kt1014.2
23:55 UTC78.871.6190° 14 kt171014.2
00:15 UTC7773.4190° 12 kt171014.6VCTS
00:35 UTC7773.4200° 11 kt1014.6
00:55 UTC75.273.4280° 6 kt1014.9
01:15 UTC75.271.6210° 11 kt151015.6
01:35 UTC73.471.6220° 7 kt1015.2

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

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:41 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
23:43 UTCTORNADO1 S CaledoniaWashington, MOTORNADIC DEBRIS IN AIR INCLUDING LIMBS AND LEAVES JUST EAST OF HIGHWAY 21 NEAR IRON COUNTY BORDER.
23:43 UTCTORNADO2 S CaledoniaIron, MOTORNADIC DEBRIS IN AIR INCLUDING LIMBS AND LEAVES JUST EAST OF HIGHWAY 21 NEAR IRON COUNTY BORDER.
23:45 UTCTORNADOCaledoniaWashington, MOVIDEO OF TORNADO NEAR CALEDONIA ALONG WITH TREE DAMAGE.
23:45 UTCTORNADOCaledoniaWashington, MOVIDEO OF TORNADO NEAR INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY C AND HIGHWAY 21 JUST NORTH OF CALEDONIA ALONG WITH TREE DAMAGE.
00:06 UTCTORNADO7 Se FestusJefferson, MO

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of July 8, 2015

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 87:06 PM CDTEF0Jefferson, MO0.150
July 88:35 PM CDTEF1Scott, MO to IL6.3125$66,000
July 89:05 PM PDTEF0El Dorado, CA2.710

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.