Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2021

EF0 tornado, Peculiar Arpt, Missouri, March 15, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Cass County on March 15, 2021, touching down at 5:12 PM CDT and reaching 10 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
March 15, 2021
Touchdown
5:12 PM CDT (22:12 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cass County
Touchdown point
38.751, -94.394
Lift-off point
38.751, -94.394
Record number
2103151612-01

The damage survey

3 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. The highest wind the damage implies is 74 mph.

  • Eyewitness report of a brief tornado just west of HWY 291, along 203rd St.

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

A storm that produced a weak tornado in eastern Johnson County Kansas moved into western Missouri and an eyewitness reported a brief touchdown near 203rd and HWY 291. No damage was reported.

A storm that produced a weak tornado in eastern Johnson County Kansas moved into western Missouri and an eyewitness reported a brief touchdown near 203rd and HWY 291. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

25 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:47 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:45 UTC21:22 UTCFlood WarningEAX
21:26 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningEAX
21:47 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningEAX
22:07 UTC22:21 UTCTornado WarningEAX
22:14 UTC22:45 UTCTornado 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 19:49 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

10.2 hours before the tornado, 111 km from the path. March 15, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2021-03-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -597, lifted condensation level 685 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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 2021-03-15The 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 126 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-597 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
685 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
178 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

1.8 hours after it, 111 km from the path. March 16, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2021-03-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -79818, lifted condensation level 930 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2021-03-16The 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 138 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 67 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-79818 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
930 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
67 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
138 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
170 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:10 UTCTORNADO4 Ene PeculiarCass, MODELAYED REPORT OF A TORNADO REPORTED NEAR E 203RD STREET ABOUT A MILE WEST OF US RTE 291. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
22:34 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 W CenterviewJohnson, MOBRIEF FUNNEL CLOUD WITH RISING MOTION AS IT PASSED OVER PROPERTY. CLEAR SLOT NOTED AS WELL.
22:40 UTCHAIL 0.52 Nw CenterviewJohnson, MOREPORT FROM MPING: HALF-INCH (0.50 IN.).
22:54 UTCHAIL 0.751 Sw WarrensburgJohnson, MOREPORT FROM MPING: DIME (0.75 IN.).
22:55 UTCHAIL 1WarrensburgJohnson, MO

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 15, 2021

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 154:30 PM CDTEF0Johnson, KS1.450$100,000
March 154:54 PM CDTUnratedDouglas, KS0.010

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.