EF3 tornado, Scrivner to Jefferson City, Missouri, May 22, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 22, 2019

Touchdown

10:56 PM CDT (03:56 UTC)

Lifted

11:51 PM CDT (04:51 UTC)

On the ground

55 minutes

Path length

32.7 miles (52.6 km)

Path width

1,500 yards (1372 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

33

Property damage

$174 million

Counties

Miller, Cole and Callaway counties

Touchdown point

38.334, -92.613

Lift-off point

38.587, -92.111

Record number

1905222156-01

377 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX and NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 165 mph.

• Loss of roof material. Uprooted trees.
• Uprooted, broken and snapped
• Start point of Eldon Tornado
• Tree fell on house and damaged roof.

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

A persistent pattern set up over the Mid Mississippi River Valley during May 21-23. Upper level winds were consistently southwesterly, providing large scale lift and moisture to the area. Converging air along frontal boundaries at the surface provided sufficient low level lift to initial storms each night. During the afternoon of May 22, 2019 specifically, a warm front was moving north into southern Missouri, increasing low level moisture. At the same time a cold front was approaching from the west. Storms developed along the cold front as it pushed southeastward through Missouri. The significant low level wind produced storms favorable for hail and tornadoes.

A tornado crossed from Miller County (WFO Springfield���s County Warning Area) into Cole County at 1120 PM. As the tornado tracked to the northeast it crossed Lake Carmel and tore the roof off of a one story home on the northeast shore of the lake. Numerous trees were either snapped off or uprooted in the area as well. Damage to the home was rated EF2. Further northeast another one story home lost its roof on Highway D just northwest of intersection with Cole Brook Lane. Damage to this home was rated EF2. The tornado strengthened from an EF-2 to an EF-3 as it moved into a subdivision off of Heritage Highway just west of U.S. Highway 54, indicated by the complete collapse of a home and complete destruction of a double wide manufactured home. As the tornado moved northeast into the Jefferson City area it destroyed or greatly damaged a warehouse and car dealership, where at least 750 cars were totaled. As it moved into downtown Jefferson City, it caused severe damage to well made residential structures. The tornado crossed the Missouri River and entered Callaway County just to the east-northeast of Jefferson City. The tornado was rated EF3 in Cole County with a path length of 17.08 miles and a max path width of 1500 yards. Thirty two people sustained injuries in Cole County. At least 516 residential buildings, 82 commercial buildings and 30 government buildings sustained moderate to major damage from the tornado in Cole County with another 500 buildings sustaining only minor damage. Overall the tornado was rated EF3 with a path length of 32.63 miles and a max path width of 1500 yards.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:45 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:46 UTC and running to 11:00 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 00:57 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 St Louis radar (KLSX), 148 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:57 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

34 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.