Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2020

EF0 tornado, Halls, Missouri, May 25, 2020

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Buchanan County on May 25, 2020, touching down at 2:30 PM CDT and reaching 20 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 25, 2020
Touchdown
2:30 PM CDT (19:30 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Buchanan County
Touchdown point
39.610, -94.990
Lift-off point
39.610, -94.990
Record number
2005251330-01

The damage survey

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0.

  • Multiple eyewitness reports, including from a NWS employee, of a brief tornado just south of St. Joseph. Location was estimated by eyewitness description and radar.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Two rounds of severe weather formed on May 25th. The first round produced a weak and brief tornado that was witnessed, but produced no damage. The second round later in the evening mainly produced some scattered minor flash flooding events and strong winds that produced minor damage.

At least two reports of a brief tornado came to the office, one of which was from an off duty National Weather Service employee. No damage was reported from this tornado.

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

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:23 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
14:32 UTC16:49 UTCFlash Flood WatchEAX
19:23 UTC20:00 UTCTornado WarningEAX
01:00 UTC15:30 UTCFlood WarningEAX

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:09 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), 12:00Z

7.5 hours before the tornado, 88 km from the path. May 25, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2020-05-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 98 joules per kilogram, CIN -160, lifted condensation level 1061 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2020-05-25The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -39 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
98 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-160 J/kg
Surface CAPE
429 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1061 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-43 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

4.5 hours after it, 88 km from the path. May 26, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2020-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 38 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 923 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2020-05-26The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
38 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
323 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
923 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
40 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:29 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:30 UTCTORNADO2 Ne RushvilleBuchanan, MODELAYED REPORT. NWS EMPLOYEE SAW TORNADO SEVERAL MILES NORTH OF THEIR LOCATION. THEY NOTED THE TIME AND LOCATION WAS ESTIMATED BY RADAR. THE TORNADO LIKELY WAS BRIEF.
19:55 UTCTORNADO6 S Saint Joseph AirporBuchanan, MOCORRECTS TIME ON PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM 6 S SAINT JOSEPH AIRPORT. SPOTTERS FOR DONIPHAN COUNTY KS REPORTED SEEING A TORNADO TOUCH DOWN FOR A BRIEF MINUTE THEN WENT BACK UP.
20:03 UTCTORNADO6 S Saint Joseph AirporBuchanan, MOSPOTTERS FOR DONIPHAN COUNTY KS REPORTED SEEING A TORNADO TOUCH DOWN FOR A BRIEF MINUTE THEN WENT BACK UP.

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 May 25, 2020

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 255:05 PM CDTEF1Titus, TX0.5100$60,000
May 255:37 PM CDTEF0Sequoyah, OK0.5100$100,000
May 255:38 PM CDTEF1Lafayette, AR0.340$200,000
May 255:58 PM CDTUnratedSebastian, AR1.375
May 256:12 PM CDTUnratedSabine Parish, LA2.340
May 256:26 PM CDTEF1Polk, IA1.650
May 257:11 PM CDTEF1Adair, OK0.6120
May 257:34 PM CDTEF0Delaware, OK0.150
May 257:45 PM CDTEF1Delaware, OK0.375
May 258:13 PM CDTEF0Delaware, OK2.2300

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.