EF0 tornado, Willholt to Brixey, Missouri, May 26, 2024

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

May 26, 2024

Touchdown

4:19 AM CDT (09:19 UTC)

Lifted

4:28 AM CDT (09:28 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

4.9 miles (7.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$5,000

County

Ozark County

Touchdown point

36.695, -92.459

Lift-off point

36.741, -92.393

Record number

2405260319-01

4 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.

• A few trees uprooted with large limbs also snapped.
• End of tornado debris signature on radar.
• Start of tornado debris signature on radar.

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

A shortwave trough approached the Missouri Ozarks on May 25, 2024, priming the atmosphere for moderate instability and sufficient deep layer shear. Additionally a low level jet around 45 to 50 knots nosed into the area during the late evening hours and into the early morning hours of May 26, 2024, further amplifying low level flow into the region. As a result, supercell thunderstorms developed and slid into the Missouri Ozarks during the overnight hours May 25 into May 26, 2024. These supercells produced hail between quarter and baseball size and flooding with rainfall totals between 3-4 inches. Widespread damaging winds were also observed, including a large swath of 70-80 mph winds in Barry county. Additionally, six tornadoes touched down across the Missouri Ozarks, producing damage ranging from EF-0 to EF-1 criteria.

A NWS storm survey concluded that an EF-0 tornado started over the Caney Mountain Conservation Area east of Willhoit and travelled northeast for almost 5 miles. The tornado uprooted several trees and snapped large limbs along its path. A tornado debris signature was present on radar for the duration of this tornado.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:07 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:36 UTC and running to 11:03 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 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.

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:19 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.