Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2017
EF0 tornado, Lake Spg, Missouri, May 27, 2017
This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Dent County on May 27, 2017, touching down at 4:00 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- May 27, 2017
- Touchdown
- 4:00 PM CDT (21:00 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.0 miles (0.0 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Dent County
- Touchdown point
- 37.766, -91.682
- Lift-off point
- 37.766, -91.682
- Record number
- 1705271500-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms brought damaging straight-line winds, large hail, tornadoes, and flooding to the Missouri Ozarks from May 27th into the early morning hours of May 28th. Over 130 reports of severe weather and flooding were received from the Missouri Ozarks.
Several pictures from a storm chaser and spotter indicated a brief tornado touched down in a heavily wooded area of rural northwest Dent County. The storm chaser location of the images captured was near Highway 72 and Highway FF looking northwest. The tornado location is estimated. Estimated wind speed and path length could not be exactly determined due to lack of road access.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
11 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:49 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:16 UTC and running to 23:26 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:16 UTC | 23:26 UTC | Tornado Watch | SGF |
| 17:41 UTC | 18:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 18:00 UTC | 08:02 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | SGF |
| 18:25 UTC | 19:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | SGF |
| 20:45 UTC | 21:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 20:49 UTC | 21:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | SGF |
| 23:23 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 23:26 UTC | 02:46 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SGF |
| 23:31 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 23:58 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. 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
9.0 hours before the tornado, 211 km from the path. May 27, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 3187 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -48 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1824 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 766 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 127 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 138 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.8
- Supercell composite
- 9.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.4 K/km
The radar
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 136 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:59 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:18 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | 2 Nw Salem | Dent, MO | 0.50 HAIL REPORT VIA COCORAHS. |
| 18:30 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | Salem | Dent, MO | PING PONG HAIL IN SALEM, MO. |
| 18:35 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1 | 2 Nw Salem | Dent, MO | 1.00 INCHES OF RAIN IN 15 MINS. VIA COCORAHS. |
| 18:38 UTC | HAIL 2 | 3 Ese Salem | Dent, MO | PUBLIC SUBMITTED PHOTOS OF 2 INCH HAIL EAST OF SALEM VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 19:15 UTC | HAIL 2 | 9 Wnw Reynolds | Reynolds, MO | FACEBOOK PICTURE OF 2-INCH HAIL IN BUNKER, MO. |
| 19:19 UTC | HAIL 3 | 2 Ne Bunker | Reynolds, MO | TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.. |
| 19:19 UTC | HAIL 3 | 9 Nw Reynolds | Reynolds, MO | TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.. |
| 20:21 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 E Steelville | Crawford, MO | TREE DOWN ON LONG SPRING ROAD NEAR ROUTE BB. |
| 20:21 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ese Falcon | Laclede, MO | NWS STORM SURVEY REVEALED AN EF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 4 MILES EAST SOUTHEAST OF FALCON IN LACLEDE COUNTY. A HOUSE SUSTAINED MAJOR DAMAGE AND NUMEROUS TREES WERE SNAPPED. THIS POINT ALSO CORRESPONDS WITH A WELL DEFINED T |
| 20:25 UTC | TORNADO | 7 Sw Fort Leonard Wood | Laclede, MO | NWS STORM SURVEY TEAM CONFIRMED AN EF-1 TORNADO THAT BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN APPROXIMATELY 7 MILES SOUTHWEST OF FORT LEONARD WOOD IN RURAL LACLEDE COUNTY. MAXIMUM WINDS WERE ESTIMATED TO BE 90 MPH. NUMEROUS TREES WERE UPROO |
| 20:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 N Roby | Texas, MO | REPORTED AT EVENING SHADE, MO. SEVERAL TREES UPROOTED. VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 20:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 W Bland | Osage, MO | MULTIPLE TREES BLOCKING ROADWAYS. POWER LINES DOWN IN BELLE. |
| 20:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Belle | Maries, MO | MULTIPLE TREES BLOCKING ROADWAYS. POWER LINES DOWN IN BELLE. |
| 20:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 W Bland | Osage, MO | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. |
| 20:44 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bland | Gasconade, MO | NUMEROUS LIMBS BLOWN DOWN AS WELL AS POWER LINES AROUND TOWN. |
| 20:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Waynesville | Pulaski, MO | TREES UPROOTED AND SHINGLES OFF HOUSE...77.2 MPH MEASURED WINDS...HUNTERS POINT SUBDIVISION IN WAYNESVILLE, PULASKI COUNTY. |
| 20:45 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | 3 S Saint Robert | Pulaski, MO | PICTURE FROM SOCIAL MEDIA OF PING PONG SIZE HAIL AT FORT LEONARD WOOD. |
| 20:47 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Houston | Texas, MO | NUMEROUS 3-6 LIMBS WERE BROKEN. |
| 20:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Edgar Springs | Phelps, MO | EDGAR SPRINGS AREA PHELPS COUNTY...NUMEROUS LARGE TREES DOWN...POWER OUT ALL OVER TOWN...BUILDING DEBRIS ON THE HIGHWAY. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR. |
| 21:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Salem | Dent, MO | NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ACROSS THE CITY. ALSO REPORTS OF E80 MPH WIND GUST. |
| 21:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Salem | Dent, MO | NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ACROSS THE CITY. ALSO REPORTS OF E80 MPH WIND GUST. NUMEROUS POWER OUTAGES. |
| 21:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 N Round Spring | Shannon, MO | NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RANGERS REPORT 3 LARGE TREES ACROSS HIGHWAY 19 ABOUT 1 MILE NORTH OF ECHO BLUFF STATE PARK. |
| 21:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Steelville | Crawford, MO | POWER LINES DOWN. |
| 21:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Viburnum | Iron, MO | TREE LIMBS DOWN. |
| 23:01 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Rolla | Phelps, MO | DIME SIZE HAIL. |
| 23:51 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 1 Se Rolla | Phelps, MO | VIA INTERNET. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 27, 2017
13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 27 | 2:38 PM CDT | EF1 | Morgan, MO | 0.1 | 300 | $25,000 | ||
| May 27 | 2:38 PM CDT | EF1 | Morgan, MO | 0.1 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| May 27 | 2:50 PM CDT | EF1 | Laclede, MO | 9.0 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| May 27 | 3:05 PM CDT | EF1 | Laclede, MO | 5.0 | 400 | $100,000 | ||
| May 27 | 3:09 PM CDT | EF1 | Laclede, MO | 2.1 | 100 | |||
| May 27 | 3:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Laclede, MO | 0.0 | 100 | |||
| May 27 | 8:18 PM CDT | EF0 | Butler, MO | 1.9 | 85 | $40,000 | ||
| May 27 | 8:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Okfuskee, OK | 2.1 | 100 | |||
| May 27 | 8:55 PM CDT | Unrated | Okfuskee, OK | 0.6 | 100 | |||
| May 27 | 10:17 PM CDT | Unrated | Murray, OK | 2.8 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 10:39 PM CDT | Unrated | Johnston, OK | 1.5 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 11:06 PM CDT | Unrated | Jefferson, OK | 2.5 | 100 | |||
| May 27 | 11:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Crawford, OK to AR | 11.2 | 700 | $30,000 |
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.