Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2020
EF0 tornado, Archie to Crescent Hill, Missouri, June 4, 2020
From Archie to Crescent Hill, this EF0 tornado ran 1.8 miles across Cass and Bates counties on June 4, 2020, touching down at 2:56 AM CDT and reaching 40 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- June 4, 2020
- Touchdown
- 2:56 AM CDT (07:56 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:00 AM CDT (08:00 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 1.8 miles (2.9 km)
- Path width
- 40 yards (37 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Counties
- Cass and Bates counties
- Touchdown point
- 38.483, -94.347
- Lift-off point
- 38.466, -94.323
- Record number
- 2006040156-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Two rounds of severe storms came through the Kansas City metro area on back to back nights, both taking place late in the evening and lasting through the overnight hours. Both events were nearly identical in evolution, with a strong QLCS each night producing scattered wind damage. The June 4 QLCS produced a couple weak and brief EF-0 tornadoes that did some minor damage.
A QLCS mesovortex tornado formed within an overnight squall line in rural Cass County. This tornado did minimal damage to trees and structures as it moved into far northern Bates County.
This is a continuation of the brief QLCS mesovortex tornado that formed within an overnight squall line in rural Cass County. This tornado did damage to trees and structures as it moved into far northern Bates County, with the most significant damage occurring in Archie where a large tree fell into a house.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 07:09 UTC and running to 08:38 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:52 UTC | 01:19 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | EAX |
| 06:52 UTC | 07:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | EAX |
| 07:09 UTC | 08:38 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | EAX |
| 07:21 UTC | 08:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | EAX |
| 07:26 UTC | 08:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | EAX |
| 07:55 UTC | 08:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | EAX |
| 07:59 UTC | 08:06 UTC | Tornado Warning | EAX |
| 14:56 UTC | 03:47 UTC | Flood Warning | EAX |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:41 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 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.
Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z
7.9 hours before the tornado, 127 km from the path. June 4, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2970 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -42 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 4129 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1684 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 7 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 28 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 106 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 4.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.9 K/km
Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z
4.1 hours after it, 127 km from the path. June 4, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 31 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -490 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 41 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1365 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 48 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -13 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 77 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.9 K/km
The surface observations
Harrisonville (LRY), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06:15 UTC | 77 | 69.8 | 170° 3 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 06:35 UTC | 77 | 69.8 | 160° 3 kt | 1009.1 | ||
| 06:55 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 160° 4 kt | 1009.1 | ||
| 07:15 UTC | 77 | 69.8 | 120° 6 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 07:35 UTC | 77 | 68 | 130° 10 kt | 1008.8 | ||
| 07:55 UTC | 69.8 | 64.4 | 10° 25 kt | 37 | 1013.5 | +TSRA |
| 08:15 UTC | 66.2 | 64.4 | 40° 11 kt | 1012.9 | +TSRA | |
| 08:35 UTC | 66.2 | 64.4 | 70° 9 kt | 1013.5 | +TSRA | |
| 08:55 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 100° 10 kt | 1013.5 | -VCTSRA | |
| 09:15 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 100° 6 kt | 1013.2 | TSRA | |
| 09:35 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 130° 9 kt | 1012.5 | VCTSRA | |
| 09:55 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 150° 14 kt | 1011.5 | RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:58 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07:20 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Ssw Lake Tapawingo | Jackson, MO | DAMAGE SURVEY INDICATED THAT THE TORNADO DEVELOPED JUST SSW OF LAKE TAPAWINGO WHERE IT THEN TRAVELED 5.7 MILES TO THE SE BEFORE DISSIPATING NEAR LAKE LATAWANA AROUND 2:33 AM CDT. |
| 07:32 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nw Lake Lotawana | Jackson, MO | HAM REPORTS FOUR INCH DIAMETER TREE DOWN, 9 TO 10 FEET TALL. |
| 07:32 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 2 Nw Lake Winnebago | Jackson, MO | |
| 07:56 UTC | TORNADO | Archie | Cass, MO | DAMAGE SURVEY INDICATED THE TORNADO DEVELOPED ON THE EAST SIDE OF ARCHIE WHERE IT THEN TRAVELED 1.7 MILES TO THE SE CROSSING INTERSTATE 49 BEFORE DISSIPATING APPROXIMATELY 2 MILES SE OF ARCHIE AROUND 3:00 AM CDT. |
| 07:58 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Archie | Cass, MO | KMBC NEWS 9 SHOWED VIDEO OF A LARGE TREE DOWN ON A HOUSE IN ARCHIE. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 08:52 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Se Horton | Vernon, MO | DAMAGING THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS DAMAGED SOME TREES AND SNAPPED AN ANTENNA POLE IN HALF AT A FARM NORTH OF NEVADA. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 4, 2020
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.