Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2015
EF1 tornado, Edgewood to Eolia, Missouri, June 28, 2015
From Edgewood to Eolia, this EF1 tornado ran 2.5 miles across Pike County on June 28, 2015, touching down at 6:23 PM CDT and reaching 50 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.
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
- June 28, 2015
- Touchdown
- 6:23 PM CDT (23:23 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:29 PM CDT (23:29 UTC)
- On the ground
- 6 minutes
- Path length
- 2.5 miles (4.0 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Pike County
- Touchdown point
- 39.254, -91.086
- Lift-off point
- 39.255, -91.040
- Record number
- 1506281723-01
The damage survey
6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.
- several trees on both sides of Highway 61 snapped or unrooted
- large cluster of trees snapped and uprooted
- estimated end point based on video and pattern in vegetation
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 strong cold front moved through the region triggering showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms produced tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds.
A tornado touched down just west of County Road 301 just south of intersection with County Road 304. As it traveled to the east, it snapped off numerous trees and tree limbs. The tornado crossed U.S. Highway 61 just north of Highway OO, knocking over several more trees before lifting and dissipating. No structural damage occurred with this tornado. Overall, it was rated EF1 with a path length of 2.48 miles and a max path width of 50 yards.
A tornado touched down about a mile and a quarter west of Eolia and traveled to the east, lifting and dissipating half a mile west of Eolia. The only damage found along the path was broken tree branches and some patterns in the vegetation. The damage was rated EF0 with a path length of 0.65 miles and a max path width of 40 yards.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
9 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:14 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:05 UTC and running to 02:40 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:05 UTC | 02:40 UTC | Tornado Watch | LSX |
| 21:37 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | LSX |
| 21:43 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LSX |
| 21:51 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LSX |
| 22:05 UTC | 22:34 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LSX |
| 23:06 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LSX |
| 23:14 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | LSX |
| 23:29 UTC | 23:47 UTC | Tornado Warning | LSX |
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 0.10 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.
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z
11.4 hours before the tornado, 233 km from the path. June 28, 2015.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 31 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -34 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1185 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 13 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 75 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 79 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.9 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z
0.6 hours after it, 233 km from the path. June 29, 2015.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 281 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -53 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1540 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 900 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 34 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 331 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.7 K/km
The radar
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:22 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:18 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 4 W Hannibal | Marion, MO | SAW ROPE FUNNEL THAT LASTED ABOUT A MINUTE APPROXIMATELY 2 MILES NORTH OF THIS LOCATION. |
| 21:18 UTC | WALL CLOUD | Hannibal | Marion, MO | ROTATING WALL CLOUD NEAR SHIN LANE AND MM BY HOSPITAL. |
| 21:20 UTC | WALL CLOUD | N Frankford | Pike, MO | SPOTTER DRIVING NORTH ON US HWY 61 NEAR RALLS MARION COUNTY LINE SEES A ROTATING WALL CLOUD TO THE NORTH |
| 21:37 UTC | WALL CLOUD | Hannibal | Marion, MO | SPOTTER AT HANNIBAL HOSPITAL SEEING ROTATION. |
| 21:41 UTC | WALL CLOUD | Hannibal | Marion, MO | JUST EAST OF HANNIBAL HOSPITAL |
| 21:53 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | The Landing | Ralls, MO | |
| 22:48 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 1 E Danville | Montgomery, MO | |
| 23:00 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | Bowling Green | Pike, MO | |
| 23:03 UTC | WALL CLOUD | 6 E Curryville | Pike, MO | SLIGHT ROTATION |
| 23:13 UTC | WALL CLOUD | 2 W Cyrene | Pike, MO | SOME ROTATION WITH STORM. GUSTY SUB SEVERE WINDS...SMALL LIMBS BLOWN DOWN. |
| 23:26 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Edgewood | Pike, MO | TORNADO ON THE GROUND...BUT HAS BECOME RAIN WRAPPED. SPOTTER WAS NEAR INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAYS HH AND Z IN NORTHERN LINCOLN COUNTY LOOKING TO THE NORTH. |
| 23:30 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 3 Nw Eolia | Pike, MO | |
| 23:30 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Nw Eolia | Pike, MO | ON US HWY 61 SOUTH OF HWY WW...RAIN WRAPPED TORNADO...TRACTOR TRAILERS BLOWN OFF THE ROAD |
| 23:30 UTC | TORNADO | Eolia | Pike, MO | 3 TOUCHDOWNS...TREE DAMAGE...NO OTHER INFORMATION AT THIS TIME. |
| 00:30 UTC | WALL CLOUD | Troy | Lincoln, MO | SEEING ROTATION JUST SOUTH OF TROY. |
| 00:42 UTC | TSTM WND GST 50 | Old Monroe | Lincoln, MO | HEAVY RAIN AS WELL. |
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.
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.