Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2024
EF0 tornado, Zora, Missouri, December 14, 2024
This EF0 tornado ran 1.7 miles across Benton County on December 14, 2024, touching down at 3:41 PM CST and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $12,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- December 14, 2024
- Touchdown
- 3:41 PM CST (21:41 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:46 PM CST (21:46 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 1.7 miles (2.7 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $12,000
- County
- Benton County
- Touchdown point
- 38.286, -93.110
- Lift-off point
- 38.303, -93.092
- Record number
- 2412141541-01
The damage survey
3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.
- Structure was not anchored into ground with concrete, only wood beams down about 3 feet into the ground. Well-built barn next to it only had a single roof panel damaged.
- Trees down in convergent pattern. Path width around 75 yards.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A few severe thunderstorms developed during the afternoon and evening of December 14th. A brief, weak tornado occurred in Benton County. A few low water crossings were affected due to heavy rainfall.
A National Weather Service storm survey determined that an EF-0 tornado occurred near the town of Zora. Several trees were damaged along with an outbuilding. The tornado traveled along a 1.7 mile path with maximum estimated winds at 80 mph and a path width of 75 yards.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:55 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SGF |
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 air that afternoon
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.
Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z
9.7 hours before the tornado, 167 km from the path. December 14, 2024.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -40409 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 539 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 372 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 493 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.1 K/km
Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z
2.3 hours after it, 167 km from the path. December 15, 2024.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -107677 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 936 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 80 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 243 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.7 K/km
The radar
The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:39 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:41 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nnw Zora | Benton, MO | NWS storm survey determined that an EF0 tornado damaged trees and an outbuilding along a 1.7 mile long path near Zora, MO. Maximum winds were estimated at 80 mph with a path width of 75 yards. |
| 21:42 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Zora | Benton, MO | Spotter photos and videos indicate several large trees uprooted and large branches snapped, as well as a barn made of sheet metal ripped apart and thrown into nearby trees. |
| 22:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Se Barnumton | Camden, MO | Time estimated by radar. Emergency management reported damage to a dock structure on Ski Valley Drive in the Roach area. |
| 22:20 UTC | WATERSPOUT | 1 Sse Old Linn Creek | Camden, MO | Corrects previous waterspout report from 1 SSE Old Linn Creek. Waterspout photographed and videoed near Mile Marker 31 on Lake of the Ozarks near Linn Creek Cove. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of December 14, 2024
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 14 | 1:39 PM PST | EF1 | Santa Cruz, CA | 0.3 | 30 | 5 | $10 | |
| December 14 | 4:20 PM CST | Unrated | Camden, MO | 0.2 | 50 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.