Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2020

EF0 tornado, Deering to Braggadocio, Missouri, September 1, 2020

From Deering to Braggadocio, this EF0 tornado ran 2.1 miles across Pemiscot County on September 1, 2020, touching down at 4:14 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
September 1, 2020
Touchdown
4:14 PM CDT (21:14 UTC)
Lifted
4:21 PM CDT (21:21 UTC)
On the ground
7 minutes
Path length
2.1 miles (3.4 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Crop damage
$2,000
County
Pemiscot County
Touchdown point
36.180, -89.880
Lift-off point
36.195, -89.847
Record number
2009011514-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A mesoscale convective system tracked across the Missouri Bootheel and northwest Tennessee and into the TN River River by mid-afternoon on September 1st. In the wake of the departing mesoscale convective system, an isolated thunderstorm developed over the Missouri Bootheel and moved into Lake County, Tennessee. A couple of weak tornadoes occurred.

A tornado developed just south of Deering. The tornado moved east northeast on an intermittent path. The tornado moved across open fields, and no structural damage was reported.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
14:49 UTC07:57 UTCFlash Flood WatchMEG
17:11 UTC18:51 UTCFlood AdvisoryMEG
22:18 UTC22:27 UTCTornado WarningMEG

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:40 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.

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z

2.8 hours after it, 151 km from the path. September 2, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2020-09-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -307, lifted condensation level 1034 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, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2020-09-02The 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 106 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-307 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1034 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
106 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Kennett (TKX), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:15 UTC78.878.8110° 5 kt1011.9
19:35 UTC78.878.8160° 4 kt1011.5
19:55 UTC80.678.80° 0 kt1011.5
20:15 UTC82.478.8 1011.2
20:35 UTC82.480.60° 0 kt1010.8
20:55 UTC82.480.6160° 4 kt1010.2
21:15 UTC82.480.6160° 4 kt1010.2
21:35 UTC84.280.6200° 3 kt1009.8
21:55 UTC82.480.6190° 4 kt1009.8
22:15 UTC82.480.6200° 5 kt1009.8
22:35 UTC82.480.6180° 5 kt1009.5
22:55 UTC82.480.6160° 5 kt1009.1

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

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:15 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
21:14 UTCTORNADO2 S DeeringPemiscot, MOINTERMITTENT TORNADO DEVELOPED JUST SOUTH OF DEERING AND CONTINUED TO THE EAST NORTHEAST ACROSS MAINLY OPEN FIELDS. NO STRUCTURAL DAMAGE WAS OBSERVED.

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 September 1, 2020

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 11:59 PM CDTEF1Conway, AR3.2100$100,000
September 12:13 PM CDTEF0Faulkner, AR3.250
September 13:07 PM CDTEF2Cleburne, AR5.3150$50,000
September 14:28 PM CDTEF0Williamson, TN2.825$5,000
September 15:24 PM CDTEF0Lake, TN2.150
September 17:10 PM CDTUnratedHall, TX0.030

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.