EF0 tornado, Wheaton to Pleasant Ridge, Missouri, April 30, 2019

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

April 30, 2019

Touchdown

4:25 PM CDT (21:25 UTC)

Lifted

4:35 PM CDT (21:35 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.0 miles (8.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$35,000

County

Barry County

Touchdown point

36.853, -93.855

Lift-off point

36.900, -93.784

Record number

1904301525-01

16 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 110 mph.

• Four large barns also destroyed
• Commercial outbuildings destroyed. Lower floor of a two story home collapsed.

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

Very moist and unstable conditions developed over the Missouri Ozarks ahead of an intense low pressure system over the southern Plains. Widespread severe storms developed over Oklahoma and eastern Kansas during the early morning hours and tracked eastward into the Springfield county warning area during the afternoon and evening. Very heavy rainfall, hail to tennis ball size, damaging winds in excess of 70 mph and 27 tornadoes occurred with this system as storms tracked repeatedly over the region. Four injuries were reported as a result of severe storms. One injury was near Mountain Grove and three were in southeastern Greene County were an EF-2 Tornado tracked. The resulting rainfall led to widespread flash flooding, which continued into the morning of May 1st, on head water streams and low water crossings. One live was lost when a camper along Hunter Creek in Douglas County drowned as the campground flooded.

This is the continuation of the tornado that touched down and tracked from five miles southwest of Rocky Comfort in McDonald County to five miles northeast of Wheaton, Missouri in Barry County. A National Weather Service survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado that tracked a total of 12 miles from five miles southwest of Rocky Comfort to five miles northeast of Wheaton, Missouri. The tornado was on the ground for approximately 22 minutes along its total track with maximum wind speeds estimated at 110 mph. After tracking across northeastern McDonald County the tornado then caused substantial damage to a commercial farming operation as it moved into Barry County near the intersection of Highways 76 and 86. While multiple large barns were heavily damaged, the most striking damage at this location was the destruction of a two story home, though it appeared that the lower walls had collapsed as the second story remained largely intact. Wind speeds associated with the home were reduced due to the lack of damage to nearby trees and power lines. The tornado continued to cause mainly roof damage to a number of homes as it crossed through the southern section of Wheaton. Clusters of more intense and a cyclonic tree fall pattern involving hundreds of trees were noted east of Wheaton interspersed with sections of limited damage as the tornado tracked northeast along portions of Highway W, through rural areas along Shoal Creek. Tree damage continued across Farm Roads 1035, 1040, Highway HH, and 1045 before the last visible damage to trees was noted north of Farm Road 2095.

A National Weather Service storm survey confirmed an EF-0 tornado five miles northeast of Purdy which tracked northeast for five miles across northern Barry County before lifting just north of Highway Z. The tornado was on the ground for approximately 10 minutes with maximum wind speeds estimated at 85 mph. This tornado was spawned by the same supercell that caused the Wheaton, Missouri tornado. Distant damage to trees was noted in inaccessible areas west of State Highway BB before causing roof panels to be torn off six outbuildings along the highway, and then again to distant trees into Prairie Run Hollow. The damage to trees became convergent as it tracked into forested areas along Farm Road 2032 before resuming an intermittent path of tree damage along portions of FR 1140. The last evidence of damage was found northeast of Pleasant Ridge north of Highway Z.

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

40 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:45 UTC, 40 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:03 UTC and running to 03:50 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:46 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.

Monett (HFJ), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:27 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.

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 2019 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

55 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.