EF0 tornado, Wood Hill, Missouri, May 17, 2015

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 17, 2015

Touchdown

2:38 AM CDT (07:38 UTC)

Lifted

2:39 AM CDT (07:39 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$5,000

County

Dallas County

Touchdown point

37.795, -93.052

Lift-off point

37.796, -93.050

Record number

1505170138-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Numerous large tree braches were broken. Several large trees were uprooted in different directions. Powerlines and poles were bent over. One house had minor roof damage.
• Several trees were snapped while numerous shingles were peeled off of a home. A detached garage was lifted off of it's foundation and shifted 5 feet to the west. A large sliding door off of a shop building was peeled off and blown 80 yards to the northeast and wrapped around a power pole.

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

A strong upper level system moved through the Midwest region and produced a squall line of thunderstorms across the Missouri Ozarks. This squall line of storms produced numerous reports of wind damage and a few weak tornadoes.

A NWS storm survey revealed that an EF-0 tornado briefly touched down in rural Dallas County. A detached garage was separated from the foundation and blown 5 feet to the west. A large sliding door from a shop was peeled off and thrown approximately 80 yards to the northeast. Approximately 7 trees were snapped around the farm. Several shingles were peeled off a home.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:15 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:40 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 07:08 UTC and running to 10:01 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:52 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.

Camdenton (OZS), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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

11 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.