EF2 tornado, Hecla to Bucklin, Missouri, May 6, 2023

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

May 6, 2023

Touchdown

8:22 PM CDT (01:22 UTC)

Lifted

8:46 PM CDT (01:46 UTC)

On the ground

24 minutes

Path length

12.4 miles (19.9 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Linn County

Touchdown point

39.930, -93.310

Lift-off point

39.870, -93.090

Record number

2305061922-01

43 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 135 mph.

• Trees topped off at location.one large tree rotted.
• Tree down on garage. Large limb, some rot. More tree damage to the northwest in the grove. Likely end point of the tornado
• Trees in grove to the northwest all broken.
• 3 snapped poles in succession at this point. Topped off trees across the road.

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

On the afternoon of May 6 strong thunderstorms formed in far northwest Missouri. Through the afternoon these storms strengthened as they moved east across northern Missouri, ultimately turning into robust supercells that started diving southeast toward Highway 36. Along the way they produced giant hail reaching, and perhaps exceeding 4 inches at times. As the main storm pushed southeast toward Linneus, Missouri it produced a tornado that at times was several hundred yards wide. This tornado produced EF-2 damage just north of Linneus. Perhaps as noteworthy, if not more so, was the extremely strong and wide rear flank downdraft that produced some intense damage well south of the main tornado track. This RFD destroyed numerous homes along the way and produced extreme tree damage to the city of Linneus, which was largely spared a direct hit from the actual tornado. Overall the storm produced three separate tornadoes, the most noteworthy of which was the EF-2 just north of Linneus, Missouri.

After creating a brief tornado in the city of Trenton the supercell went on to produce a more massive and long-lived tornado across central Linn County. No incorporated cities were directly impacted by the tornado, but several residences across the county were damaged. The most extensive residential damage occurred just north of Linneus as the storm crossed Highway 5. The tornado eventually dissipated east of Linneus before producing again as it approached Bucklin. One notable aspect of this event was the extreme rear flank downdraft, which produced some of the more extensive damage. This damage was determined to be straight line winds due to being 1-2 miles away from the main tornado circulation.

After the large tornado across central Linn County there was a brief interruption in the damage path. The next tornado formed a few miles southeast of where the larger tornado circulation became discontinuous. This tornado did some minor damage to residences and outbuildings between Linneus and Bucklin. Some of the more extensive damage occurred from rear-flank downdraft winds 1-2 miles south of the main tornado circulation.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:13 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:56 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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.

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 152 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:20 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

10 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.