Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2015

EF0 tornado, Guthrie, Missouri, June 28, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Callaway County on June 28, 2015, touching down at 5:46 PM CDT and reaching 10 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
June 28, 2015
Touchdown
5:46 PM CDT (22:46 UTC)
Lifted
5:47 PM CDT (22:47 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Callaway County
Touchdown point
38.753, -92.059
Lift-off point
38.752, -92.057
Record number
1506281646-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong cold front moved through the region triggering showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms produced tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds.

A trained spotter saw a tornado briefly touch down in a field. Debris was seen in the air confirming the brief touchdown. The debris appeared to consist of brush and dirt. No structural damage was reported.

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 20:05 UTC and running to 00:24 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:05 UTC00:24 UTCTornado WatchLSX
21:22 UTC22:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
21:55 UTC22:34 UTCTornado WarningLSX
22:07 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
22:30 UTC22:50 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
22:32 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
22:45 UTC23:16 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
22:48 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningLSX
22:53 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningLSX
23:08 UTC23:21 UTCTornado 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:42 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

10.8 hours before the tornado, 257 km from the path. June 28, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2015-06-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -69366, lifted condensation level 1208 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2015-06-28The 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 66 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-69366 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1208 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
115 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 257 km from the path. June 29, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2015-06-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 961 joules per kilogram, CIN -73, lifted condensation level 1532 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2015-06-29The 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 159 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
961 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-73 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1936 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1532 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
279 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
10.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 119 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:47 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
21:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGCentraliaBoone, MOLOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN AROUND TOWN
21:45 UTCHAIL 0.53 W ThompsonAudrain, MO
21:59 UTCWALL CLOUDS MexicoAudrain, MOSPOTTER WAS ON US HWY 54 SOUTH OF MEXICO LOOKING NW AND SEES A DEFINITE LOWERING
22:00 UTCWALL CLOUDAuxvasseCallaway, MOREPORTS OF ROTATION FROM SEVERAL CITIZENS AS WELL AS LAW ENFORECEMENT
22:10 UTCHAIL 1FultonCallaway, MO
22:12 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDAuxvasseCallaway, MOOBSERVER LOOKING ENE.
22:17 UTCWALL CLOUDCaliforniaMoniteau, MO
22:25 UTCWALL CLOUDCaliforniaMoniteau, MOPOSSIBLE ROTATION.
22:28 UTCWALL CLOUDFultonCallaway, MOTWO CITIZENS REPORTED ROTATION
22:31 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDWilliamsburgCallaway, MOINTERMITTENT FUNNEL CLOUD WITH PERSISTENTLY ROTATING WALL CLOUD
22:38 UTCHAIL 0.75 N ReformCallaway, MO
22:40 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDMokaneCallaway, MOEM NEAR MOKANE REPORTS A FUNNEL CLOUD TO THE NORTHEAST
22:44 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 N Holts SummitCallaway, MOSTRONG ROTATION
22:47 UTCTORNADO3 Nne New BloomfieldCallaway, MOTORNADO ON THE GROUND WITH SOME DEBRIS IN AIR. WEST OF US HIGHWAY 54.
22:47 UTCTORNADO3 N New BloomfieldCallaway, MOTORNADO ON THE GROUND WITH SOME DEBRIS IN AIR. WEST OF US HIGHWAY 54.
22:48 UTCHAIL 0.881 E DanvilleMontgomery, MO
22:52 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDSw New BloomfieldCallaway, MONEAR CALLAWAY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT...THIS STORM HAS PRODUCED SEVERAL FUNNELS BETWEEN NEW BLOOMFIELD AND MOKANE
22:55 UTCHAIL 1.259 S FultonCallaway, MOONGOING
23:09 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD4 N MokaneCallaway, MOSTRONG ROTATION
23:09 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDMokaneCallaway, MOSTRONG ROTATION
23:10 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDSw New BloomfieldCallaway, MOCONDENSATION FUNNEL APPROACHING THE GROUND NEAR CALLAWAY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
23:13 UTCTSTM WND GST 60GasconadeGasconade, MOALSO NICKEL SIZE HAIL

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 June 28, 2015

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 284:49 PM CDTEF0Van Buren, IA0.125
June 286:23 PM CDTEF1Pike, MO2.550
June 286:34 PM CDTEF0Pike, MO0.740
June 288:04 PM CDTEF2Saint Charles, MO2.3400

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.