Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2018
EF1 tornado, Dent to Kimble, Missouri, April 13, 2018
From Dent to Kimble, this EF1 tornado ran 5.5 miles across Texas County on April 13, 2018, touching down at 8:20 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 of property damage.
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
- April 13, 2018
- Touchdown
- 8:20 PM CDT (01:20 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:25 PM CDT (01:25 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 5.5 miles (8.9 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $25,000
- County
- Texas County
- Touchdown point
- 37.523, -91.925
- Lift-off point
- 37.577, -91.849
- Record number
- 1804131920-01
The damage survey
5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.
- trees uprooted and outbuildings damaged.
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 and associated spring storm system produce severe thunderstorms with very large hail and several tornadoes across the Missouri Ozarks.
An EF-1 Tornado damaged a house, a vacant mobile home, and numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado developed four miles west northwest of Licking and tracked five miles along Highway 32 before lifting five miles southeast of Beulah near Sherrill. The maximum width was 50 yards and estimated wind speed up to 100 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
23 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:57 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:29 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:29 UTC | 04:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | SGF |
| 00:05 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 00:29 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | SGF |
| 00:57 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | SGF |
| 01:26 UTC | 01:57 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 01:37 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
| 11:37 UTC | 17:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | SGF |
| 17:26 UTC | 03:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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), 00:00Z
1.3 hours before the tornado, 184 km from the path. April 14, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 505 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -13 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1157 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 560 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 139 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 157 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 3.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.0 K/km
Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z
10.7 hours after it, 184 km from the path. April 14, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -105729 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 915 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 103 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 136 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 412 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
The radar
The Springfield radar (KSGF), 138 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:16 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:35 UTC | TORNADO | 1 W Dawson | Wright, MO | AN EF-1 TORNADO WITH MAXIMUM WIDTH OF 75 YARDS AND MAXIMUM WINDS OF 100 MPH MOVED NORTHEAST FROM DOVE CREEK ROAD TO BATY ROAD. TREES AND OUTBUILDINGS WERE DAMAGED. |
| 01:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bucyrus | Texas, MO | DAMAGE TO METAL CARPORT, ROOF OF HOUSE AND TREES. ROOF OF METAL CARPORT THROWN 1/10 TO 1/4 MILE. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 01:00 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Sw Success | Texas, MO | AN EF-1 TORNADO WITH MAXIMUM WIDTH OF 50 YARDS AND MAXIMUM WINDS OF 95 MPH DAMAGED A ROOF, CARPORT, OUTBUILDING AND TREES ALONG A ONE AND A QUARTER MILE PATH FROM 5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF SUCCESS TO ONE HALF MILE EAST OF HIG |
| 01:20 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Wnw Licking | Texas, MO | AN EF-1 TORNADO WITH MAXIMUM WINDS OF 100 MPH AND MAXIMUM WIDTH OF 50 YARDS DAMAGED A HOUSE, VACANT MOBILE HOME, AND NUMEROUS TREES WERE SNAPPED AND UPROOTED. THE PATH LENGTH WAS FIVE MILES AND EXTENDED FROM 4 MILES WNW |
| 01:23 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Wnw Licking | Texas, MO | SOCIAL MEDIA PICTURES OF UNOCCUPIED MOBILE HOME WITH SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. |
| 01:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Willow Springs | Howell, MO | LIMBS DOWN IN TOWN. |
| 01:48 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 S Salem | Dent, MO | A COUPLE TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN SALEM. |
| 01:48 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Salem | Dent, MO | SOME ROOF DAMAGE AND POWER LINES DOWN. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 13, 2018
22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 13 | 4:04 PM CDT | EF2 | Crawford, AR | 11.7 | 1,000 | 4 | $600,000 | |
| April 13 | 5:46 PM CDT | EF1 | Sebastian, AR | 5.6 | 400 | $35,000 | ||
| April 13 | 6:34 PM CDT | EF1 | Ouachita Parish, LA | 1.7 | 600 | $125,000 | ||
| April 13 | 6:43 PM CDT | EF1 | Union Parish, LA | 3.9 | 950 | $1,000 | ||
| April 13 | 6:48 PM CDT | EF1 | Johnson, AR | 5.0 | 250 | |||
| April 13 | 7:04 PM CDT | EF1 | Union Parish, LA | 0.4 | 200 | |||
| April 13 | 7:10 PM CDT | EF2 | Howard, AR | 2.2 | 350 | $100,000 | ||
| April 13 | 7:13 PM CDT | EF2 | Wright, MO | 9.0 | 100 | $300,000 | ||
| April 13 | 7:33 PM CDT | EF2 | Caldwell Parish, LA | 4.1 | 340 | $50,000 | ||
| April 13 | 7:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Wright, MO | 5.0 | 75 | $25,000 | ||
| April 13 | 7:51 PM CDT | EF0 | Montgomery, AR | 0.7 | 100 | |||
| April 13 | 8:00 PM CDT | EF1 | Texas, MO | 1.4 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| April 13 | 8:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Baxter, AR | 0.5 | 150 | $10,000 | ||
| April 13 | 9:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Richland Parish, LA | 3.2 | 400 | $25,000 | ||
| April 13 | 9:13 PM CDT | EF0 | Conway, AR | 0.2 | 100 | |||
| April 13 | 9:46 PM CDT | EF1 | West Carroll Parish, LA | 1.9 | 200 | $65,000 | ||
| April 13 | 10:13 PM CDT | EF0 | White, AR | 0.1 | 80 | $2,000 | ||
| April 13 | 11:04 PM CDT | EF1 | Gregg, TX | 4.3 | 580 | $11,000 | ||
| April 13 | 11:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Caddo Parish, TX to LA | 10.5 | 100 | $6,000 | ||
| April 13 | 12:10 AM CDT | EF1 | Caddo Parish, LA | 22.5 | 1,100 | 1 | $7.0 million | |
| April 13 | 12:42 AM CDT | EF0 | Bossier Parish, LA | 5.1 | 300 | $50,000 | ||
| April 13 | 12:58 AM CDT | EF1 | Webster Parish, LA | 2.9 | 500 | $15,000 |
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.