EF1 tornado, Butler to Mayesburg, Missouri, April 27, 2024

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

April 27, 2024

Touchdown

8:23 PM CDT (01:23 UTC)

Lifted

8:26 PM CDT (01:26 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.5 miles (4.1 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bates County

Touchdown point

38.216, -94.312

Lift-off point

38.221, -94.266

Record number

2404271923-01

32 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.

• Trees uprooted to the northwest and to the east. Trunk sizes varied (6-15 inches).
• Very large tree uprooted to the northeast.
• Multiple branches broken at this residence. Most branches aligned to the east, but some variability was present.
• Multiple trees broken around halfway up. Trunk size around 6 inches.

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

On the afternoon and evening hours of April 27, severe storms impacted much of the WFO Kansas City county warning area.

This tornado began just east of Route YY and just south of State Highway 52 southeast of Butler in Bates County, where minor tree damage was observed. The tornado strengthened as it moved east-northeast toward SH 52, snapping or uprooting several trees at a residence just south of the highway. The fallen trees were in a variety of directions, confirming the presence of a tornado. The tornado continued along the highway east past Route N, where power poles were damaged and additional minor tree damage was observed. The last signs of damage were just east of Route N, where small limbs were downed at a residence.

NWS Storm Survey confirmed a relatively long-track QLCS EF-1 tornado. This EF1 tornado began just south of Route 18 east of Passaic. Some of the worst damage of the tornado affected a farm property, where one outbuilding collapsed, another had a garage door blown off, and multiple trees were damaged or uprooted. Large debris from the damaged property was blown well northeast, in some cases over 100 yards. The tornado tracked northeast, damaging a grove of trees to the south of SH 18 and producing minor damage to an outbuilding and mobile home on the north side of the highway. The tornado then tracked northeast to Route T, producing sporadic tree damage and some minor property damage. The damage track continues east-northeast along County Road 13004, with continued sporadic tree damage. One of the larger trees fell onto a residence, damaging the property as well as to power lines. Intermittent tree damage continues northeast to Route BB and County Road 13003, with more significant tree damage eastward along Sunset Drive just west of the Henry County line. Damage becomes more intermittent eastward into Henry County, with no damage observed a half mile past the county line. However, much of this area north of 400 Road in Henry County is inaccessible, so it is possible the tornado continued a short distance longer to the north or northeast of the end of the track.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:15 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:57 UTC and running to 03:38 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:02 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.

Harrisonville (LRY), 44 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 66 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:26 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 2024 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

62 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 63 of them

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.