EF1 tornado, Cave Spg to Ebenezer, Missouri, April 30, 2019

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

April 30, 2019

Touchdown

8:15 PM CDT (01:15 UTC)

Lifted

8:17 PM CDT (01:17 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Greene County

Touchdown point

37.328, -93.461

Lift-off point

37.328, -93.429

Record number

1904301915-01

11 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 100 mph.

• Outbuildings also destroyed
• Roof off home and barns destroyed

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.

A National Weather Service storm survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado tracked from two miles northwest of Willard, Missouri to two miles north of Willard. The tornado was on the ground for approximately two minutes along its 1.8 mile total track with maximum wind speeds estimated at 100 mph. Cyclonic tree fall pattern was observed within an intermittent path of uprooted and damaged trees. A few outbuildings were damaged from just east of Highway 123 and continued along Farm Road 64 to east of Highway Z. There was a noticeable break along the southern (right) flank of this tornadic path which separated a path of up to 70 mph straight line wind damage along and south of Farm Road 68 that continued into the northern parts of Willard.

A National Weather Service storm survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado tracked from four miles northeast of Willard, Missouri to five miles northeast of Willard. The tornado was on the ground for approximately two minutes along its 1.7 mile total track with maximum wind speeds estimated at 100 mph. The first observed signs of this tornado was substantial damage to a farm house, a large pole barn and six outbuildings within an area of cyclonic tree fall pattern along North Farm Road 117. Observers noted similar tree patterns along a ridge top to the west of the farmhouse and other light tree damage along the Little Sac River valley. An intermittent path of mainly light tree damage and damage to two outbuildings was then noted eastward to Farm Road 123. There was a noticeable break along the southern (right) flank of this tornadic path where a swath of up to 70 mph straight line winds damaged or uprooted numerous trees south along and south of Farm Road 54.

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

34 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:41 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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.

Springfield (SGF), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 11 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:13 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.

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.