EF2 tornado, Tucker to Poplar Bluff, Missouri, May 26, 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 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 26, 2024

Touchdown

6:04 AM CDT (11:04 UTC)

Lifted

6:47 AM CDT (11:47 UTC)

On the ground

43 minutes

Path length

45.5 miles (73.1 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$1.1 million

Counties

Oregon, Ripley and Butler counties

Touchdown point

36.509, -91.199

Lift-off point

36.743, -90.437

Record number

2405260504-01

102 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK and NWS PAH and NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Many many trees uprooted in the area.
• Many trees uprooted across South Guntharp Road.
• Last damage point noted therefore the end of this tornado.
• Last indication of damage, therefore the end of the tornado track.

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

The second major severe weather outbreak for the month occurred on the 26th for the Quad State region. On the synoptic scale, a shortwave trough centered in the middle of the country with a 60 kt mid-level jet moved across northern Arkansas. A weak surface low was moving into SE Missouri during the morning with a secondary low located further northwest. A warm frontal boundary was draped across our area. A bowing line progressed east across SE Missouri into W Kentucky and far S Illinois between 0500-1000CST, followed by a mostly sub-severe second line that exited the region by 1300CST. The environment recovered producing fuel for more severe storms, starting with supercells 1800-2100CST with a line of storms moving east-southeastward across the entire Quad State after 1900CST, crossing through by midnight. Across the Quad State, this event produced the record for most tornado track miles in a single day in office history, along with the second most warnings issued in a day (just behind the May 8, 2024 event). Widespread straight-line wind and tornado damage resulted in over 100,000 customers without power across the Quad State. ||For the morning, MLCAPE values at 0700CST were 1000-2500 J/kg in SE Missouri. Effective bulk shear was 40-50 kts with STP of 1-3. Precipitable water was 1.6-1.9 inches, allowing for torrential rainfall rates.||The morning round of storms produced widespread straight-line wind damage across the southernmost portions of SE Missouri, especially Ripley to Stoddard Counties. Three strong tornadoes occurred during the early morning in SE Missouri. The first was a long-track EF-2 tornado beginning in Oregon County, then crossed the entirety of Ripley County before lifting on the SW side of Poplar Bluff. A destructive downburst in Dexter transitioned into an EF-2 tornado that tracked northeastward to southeast of Morley in Scott County. An EF-3 tornado that began in far eastern Stoddard County moved northeastward through Sikeston to Diehlstadt with widespread damage in Sikeston. One person (43m, indirect) in Southeast Sikeston lost his life due to a falling tree branch during cleanup. Another person (51f, indirect) in Morehouse died as a result of an unattended candle, used for lighting during the resulting power outage, causing a house fire. Flash flooding occurred in several counties in SE Missouri as a result of high rain rates with the first round of storms, with late morning storms extending flood duration. A majority of Ripley, Butler, Stoddard, and New Madrid Counties were without power as of late morning, with significant outages also occurring in Wayne, Scott, and Mississippi Counties.||Heading into the evening, MLCAPE values at 1800CST were 3500-4500 J/kg in SE Missouri. For SE Missouri, effective bulk shear rose to 45-55 kts, with SRH around 200-250 m2/s2 and STP of 2-4. 0-1 km shear was 15-20 kts. Mid-level lapse rates were 7-7.5 C/km. DCAPE of 1200-1500 J/kg provided ample opportunity for downburst winds.||Late afternoon to early evening supercells were mainly in S Illinois and W Kentucky. The few in SE Missouri approached far western counties. After several chaser videos of tornadoes west of Carter County, the cold front caught up to the storm and Carter County primarily had straight-line wind damage as a result, with a brief EF-0 tornado. Another tornado, an EF-1, entered Bollinger County southeast of Marquand. Several straight-line wind reports were received, along with more flash flooding as lingering high water and saturated soils from the day were quickly reinvigorated. 2-5 inches of rain fell across the southern two rows of counties, with some of the highest rainfall totals near the Black River and south of Cape Girardeau. More power outages occurred with Carter and Bollinger County outages, along with the seven counties from the morning with substantial outage numbers, continuing through the night. The Black River briefly flooded in Poplar Bluff following this storm.

A long track EF-2 tornado began in southeastern Oregon County before crossing over into Ripley County south of Gatewood. A garage was pulled off of a cabin near the Fourche Creek Conservation area. The track then turned northeastward, then reverted to an eastward direction south of Doniphan. Afterwards, the track continued northeastward towards Fairdealing. Wind appears to have caught the overhang of the roof of a home and mostly removed it, pulling down some exterior walls in the process. The tornado crossed into Butler County just north of US-160E. Several homes sustained gutter and shingle damage along the path. Hundreds of trees were uprooted and snapped along the tornado track blocking access to many roads. A large majority of Ripley County lost power as a result of this tornado and the other morning storms, with roughly half the county still without power by midnight. Estimated peak winds for the Ripley County portion, and the tornado as a whole, were 115 mph.

An EF-2 tornado (max of EF-1 in Butler County) began in far southeast Oregon County, then tracked northeastward across the entirety of Ripley County before entering Butler County just north of US-160. The track continued into the western edge of Poplar Bluff with minor roof and shingle damage to homes. Hundreds of trees were uprooted and snapped along the tornado track. Several homes sustained gutter and shingle damage. Estimated peak winds with the Butler County portion of this tornado were 105 mph.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:31 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:36 UTC and running to 11:40 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 06:00 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.

Corning (4M9), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 166 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:05 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

69 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 70 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.