EF1 tornado, Holman to Marshfield, Missouri, May 21, 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

May 21, 2019

Touchdown

2:48 PM CDT (19:48 UTC)

Lifted

2:55 PM CDT (19:55 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

7.1 miles (11.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$35,000

County

Webster County

Touchdown point

37.272, -93.055

Lift-off point

37.340, -92.959

Record number

1905211348-01

15 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.

• Large tree snapped at the trunk. Debris carried to the northeast.
• Measured 80mph on an anemometer before it broke. Tree is uprooted laying towards northeast. No roof damage to house.
• Eastern half of roof blown off with debris towards northeast.
• Damage continues northeast.

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

Multiple rounds of storms producing heavy rainfall, severe winds, hail and tornadoes moved across the Missouri Ozarks from May 20th and into the early morning hours of May 24th as upper level disturbances interacted with a slow moving but powerful storm system over the central Plains. Tornadoes occurred with each round, with the strongest and most numerous tornadoes occurring during the late afternoon and evening of the 22nd. On the anniversary of the Joplin Tornado off 2011, another tornado, rated EF-3 struck the north side of Joplin. This storm system eventually produced subsequent tornadoes in Golden City, Eldon and Jefferson City. Unfortunately there were three fatalities as a result of the tornado in Golden City. The cumulative rainfall caused areas of flash flooding with some flooding lingering across the region. Some locations in southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri reported in excess of 8 inches of rainfall over the 72 hour period. .

A National Weather Service storm survey determined that an EF-1 tornado with maximum winds of 100 mph traveled along a 7 mile path. This tornado snapped tree trunks as it touched down south of I-44 just east of the Greene/Webster County line near the Wild Animal Safari and crossed the Interstate near Heritage Rd. Wind speeds were measured at 80 mph before an anemometer failed near the intersection of Cologna Rd and Whispering Oaks. The roof of a manufactured home was torn off and several trees uprooted at this location. After destroying a large outbuilding on Headwaters Dr, the tornado downed large branches as it lifted crossing State Highway J near Highway 38.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:44 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:32 UTC and running to 21:34 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:10 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.

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:47 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

30 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.