Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2018

EF0 tornado, Labadie to Gray Summit, Missouri, January 22, 2018

From Labadie to Gray Summit, this EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Franklin County on January 22, 2018, touching down at 1:12 AM CST and reaching 25 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
January 22, 2018
Touchdown
1:12 AM CST (07:12 UTC)
Lifted
1:13 AM CST (07:13 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Franklin County
Touchdown point
38.509, -90.823
Lift-off point
38.510, -90.821
Record number
1801220112-01

The damage survey

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

  • 2-foot diameter tree limb snapped off near base.
  • Several tree tops and limbs broken off.
  • Several smaller tree limbs scattered throughout corn field with pine tree snapped near the edge of the field.

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

Isolated strong to severe storms moved through the region. One tornado and isolated wind damage occurred.

A very weak tornado developed west of the intersection of Decker Road and Dusty Road north of Gray Summit snapping several trees and crossing an open corn field before lifting. It was only on the ground for a total of one minute and less than two tenths of a mile, but the debris from the harvested corn field was lofted nearly 4300 feet in the air and was detected by radar for 15 minutes after the tornado dissipated. The tornado was rated EF0. Path length was 0.18 miles with a max path width of 25 yards.

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.

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 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), 00:00Z

7.2 hours before the tornado, 264 km from the path. January 22, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2018-01-22Temperature 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 -58042, lifted condensation level 503 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2018-01-22The 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 140 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-58042 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
503 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
140 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
254 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

4.8 hours after it, 264 km from the path. January 22, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2018-01-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -23, lifted condensation level 542 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2018-01-22The 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 65 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-23 J/kg
Surface CAPE
16 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
542 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Washington (FYG), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
05:15 UTC5955.4130° 6 kt1006.1
05:35 UTC5955.4140° 6 kt1005.8VCTS -RA
06:15 UTC5957.2110° 11 kt151003.7
06:35 UTC5957.2110° 9 kt1002.7-RA
06:55 UTC55.455.4170° 6 kt261003.4RA
07:15 UTC55.453.60° 0 kt1002.4-RA
07:35 UTC55.455.40° 0 kt1003-RA
07:55 UTC55.455.4190° 7 kt1003.4VCTS -RA
08:15 UTC55.455.40° 0 kt1002.7-RA
08:35 UTC55.455.4140° 7 kt1002.7-RA
08:55 UTC53.653.6150° 7 kt1003.4-RA

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

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 24 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:13 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
07:12 UTCTORNADO1 Nnw Gray SummitFranklin, MOA VERY WEAK TORNADO DEVELOPED WEST OF THE INTERSECTION OF DECKER ROAD AND DUSTY ROAD NORTH OF GRAY SUMMIT SNAPPING SEVERAL TREES AND CROSSING AN OPEN CORN FIELD BEFORE LIFTING. IT WAS ONLY ON THE GROUND FOR A TOTAL OF ON

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 January 22, 2018

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 2212:49 AM CSTEF1Faulkner, AR2.7150$100,000
January 222:10 AM CSTEF0Jasper, TX0.510$20,000
January 222:23 AM CSTEF0Vernon Parish, LA0.010$15,000
January 229:16 AM CSTEF1Covington, MS7.32502$45,000

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.