Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2024

EF1 tornado, (Jln)Joplin Muni Arp, Missouri, May 2, 2024

This EF1 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Jasper County on May 2, 2024, touching down at 1:40 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
May 2, 2024
Touchdown
1:40 PM CDT (18:40 UTC)
Lifted
1:42 PM CDT (18:42 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
County
Jasper County
Touchdown point
37.155, -94.520
Lift-off point
37.160, -94.510
Record number
2405021240-01

The damage survey

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

  • Roof suffered shingle damage, trees uprooted
  • Trees uprooted. A tree fell on a home causing significant damage.

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

Storms developed along a cold front, with rotation developing in Jasper County near Joplin. Areas of rotation continued to track through Jasper and Barton counties, with a confirmed tornado in Jasper County near Carl Junction.

NWS survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 90 mph uprooted and or damaged numerous trees, including one that caused significant damage to a home as it fell. Four additional homes had roof and or siding damage.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
11:58 UTC15:00 UTCFlood AdvisorySGF
18:42 UTC19:15 UTCTornado WarningSGF
19:11 UTC22:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningSGF
19:14 UTC19:28 UTCTornado WarningSGF

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:05 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 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

6.7 hours before the tornado, 70 km from the path. May 2, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2024-05-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -89152, lifted condensation level 1956 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2024-05-02The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 95 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89152 J/kg
Surface CAPE
351 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1956 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
134 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

5.3 hours after it, 70 km from the path. May 3, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2024-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 59 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 507 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2024-05-03The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 203 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
59 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
320 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
507 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
203 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
247 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:41 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:40 UTCTORNADOCarl JunctionJasper, MOSuspected tornado downed trees and caused minor structural damage to homes northwest of the Joplin airport around Carl Junction.

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 May 2, 2024

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 210:09 AM CDTEF1Sabine Parish, LA5.2325
May 211:32 AM CDTUnratedJefferson Davis Parish, LA0.01
May 23:58 PM CDTEF0, PR0.54$8,000
May 25:53 PM CDTEF2Runnels, TX4.5390
May 26:29 PM CDTUnratedJones, TX0.8100
May 26:39 PM CDTEF2Concho, TX6.1395
May 27:06 PM CDTEF3Jones, TX3.32104

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.