EF1 tornado, Minimum to Oak Grove, Missouri, October 24, 2021

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

October 24, 2021

Touchdown

8:29 PM CDT (01:29 UTC)

Lifted

8:44 PM CDT (01:44 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

10.2 miles (16.5 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Iron and Madison counties

Touchdown point

37.449, -90.609

Lift-off point

37.525, -90.450

Record number

2110241929-01

92 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 150 mph.

• No hurricane clips on roof
• Truck lifter on top of car
• Long stretch of several trees topped/snapped
• Numerous trees uprooted with large branches broken. Was able to see damage to a home approx 500 yards into fenced private property, but was not able to access the degree of damage. There was a consistent path of damage from the trees at this point to the home.

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

Numerous severe thunderstorms formed ahead of an approaching cold front across southeast Missouri during the evening hours of Sunday, October 24th, 2021. As the storms moved northeastward, they moved into a moist, energy-rich environment with substantial wind shear in the low and mid-levels. They quickly intensified, remaining somewhat isolated as they moved through southeast Missouri and into southwest Illinois. The environment was very favorable for tornadic development, and these storms produced several tornadoes and wind damage as they moved through the area. Two storms produced tornadoes that remained on the ground for significant distances. The tornado that moved through Fredericktown, MO, passing through Madison County into Perry County, was on the ground for 18.9 miles. Another tornado moved from St. Francois County through St. Genevieve County in Missouri into Randolph County in Illinois, staying on the ground for over 40 miles.

A tornado touched down on south side of County Road 124, 1.3 miles west intersection with Highway E, in southern Iron County. This tornado uprooted several trees and broke branches on numerous other trees before continuing into a field where it damaged a manufactured home. The tornado then moved into a densely wooded portion of Mark Twain National Forest where it uprooted or damaged many trees as it crossed from Iron County, about 8 miles east of Glover, into Madison County. The tornado was rated EF1 with a path length of 4.35 miles and a max path width of 250 yards in Madison County. No deaths or injuries.

The tornado crossed from Iron into Madison County, about 4.8 miles WSW of Braddy Ford, and continued moving to the northeast. The damage in western Madison County was extensive tree damage as seen on high resolution USGS satellite imagery. Shortly after lifting, around 1.7 miles north northeast of Braddy Ford, the storm that produced this tornado went on to produce the Fredericktown tornado. This portion of the tornado track is rated EFU because it was surveyed from satellite images. The path length is 5.93 miles with a max path width of 50 yards. Overall, the entire tornado (Iron/Madison Counties) was rated EF1 with a path length of 10.23 miles and a max path width of 250 yards. No deaths or injuries.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:10 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:08 UTC and running to 04:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 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.

Farmington (FAM), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 135 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:31 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 2021 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

16 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.