EF0 tornado, Wellsville to Buell, Missouri, August 12, 2023

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

August 12, 2023

Touchdown

3:34 AM CDT (08:34 UTC)

Lifted

3:38 AM CDT (08:38 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.5 miles (4.1 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Montgomery County

Touchdown point

39.101, -91.501

Lift-off point

39.081, -91.461

Record number

2308120234-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.

• Several trees and large branches down. Talked to land owner they already cleared up quite a few other trees that were on the fence line.

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

Overnight August 11th into August 12th, discrete supercells congealed into a convective complex. This system produced widespread wind damage from northeast Missouri and west central Illinois as far south as the St. Louis Metropolitan Area.

The tornado touched down 5 miles southwest of Middletown, on the west side of Swope School Road, just north of intersection with Highway A. In this location, several trees and tree branches were blown down. The tornado moved to the southeast, crossing Highway A and then as it crossed Trinity Church Road, several large tree limbs were snapped off and blocked the road. The tornado continued to the southeast for almost two more miles with additional minor tree damage before lifting and dissipating near the intersection of Nagel Road and Poppy Road, about 4 miles south southwest of Middletown. Overall the tornado was rated EF0 with a path length of 2.54 miles and a max path width of 40 yards. No deaths or injuries were reported.

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

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 06:48 UTC and running to 10:02 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:46 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.

Mexico (MYJ), 30 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), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:32 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 2023 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

15 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.