EF1 tornado, Barks to Yount, 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

9:42 PM CDT (02:42 UTC)

Lifted

9:45 PM CDT (02:45 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.7 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Perry County

Touchdown point

37.610, -90.060

Lift-off point

37.620, -90.020

Record number

2110242042-01

73 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX and NWS PAH, 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
• Track parallels Route F. Numerous trees snapped or uprooted and 16 power poles down around 3/4 miles to the west.
• Power poles down along with snapped trees.
• Large area of tree damage. Both snapped and uprooted. Est width 3/4 mile

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

The severe weather episode began as a series of supercells and transitioned to a squall line. A supercell thunderstorm produced a strong long-track tornado across southeast Missouri that ended in southwest Perry County. A short EF-1 tornado associated with a squall line struck southern Perry County shortly thereafter. A longer track EF-1 tornado also impacted eastern Wayne County into southern Bollinger County. The storms preceded a strong cold front that trailed south-southwest from a low pressure center over west central Illinois. Dew points ahead of the front were in the lower to mid 60's. Instability was strong enough to support severe storms, given that wind shear was quite strong. Mixed-layer capes were around 1000 j/kg.

This long-track tornado crossed into southwest Perry County from Madison County. Along the Madison/Perry county line, the width was about half of a mile wide, with numerous trees snapped and uprooted. The tornado then moved nearly parallel to County Road 738. Here several houses and a hunting lodge sustained minor damage, mainly to roofs and posts of a porch. One barn and a small shed were destroyed, along with numerous uprooted and snapped trees. The tornado continued on to produce tree damage on Highway 730, where it was only a few hundred yards wide and dissipated shortly thereafter. Peak winds in the Perry County portion of the path were near 112 mph, putting it barely into the EF-2 category. However, the tornado peaked at EF-3 intensity earlier in its life cycle.

This short-lived tornado occurred in sparsely populated country near the tiny community of Yount. The tornado crossed Highway J three times, snapping and uprooting trees along its path.

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

39 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:03 UTC, 39 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:45 UTC and running to 04:58 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.

Perryville (PCD), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 128 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:39 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.