EF2 tornado, Dexter to Diehlstadt, 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

7:07 AM CDT (12:07 UTC)

Lifted

7:28 AM CDT (12:28 UTC)

On the ground

21 minutes

Path length

25.6 miles (41.2 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$215,000

Counties

Stoddard and Scott counties

Touchdown point

36.795, -89.942

Lift-off point

37.036, -89.593

Record number

2405260607-01

113 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 140 mph.

• Center pivot irrigation system overturned.
• One pole broken and a second leaning.
• Cinder block walls not reinforced with rebar.
• Irrigation system damaged.

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.

An EF-2 tornado began on the east side of Dexter. Moving east-northeast, the tornado downed numerous trees along its path. Northeast of Essex, the tornado downed a few large wooden power transmission lines. The tornado then turned to the northeast and eventually north-northeast, crossing the Little River into Scott County. Estimated peak winds in Stoddard County, and for the tornado as a whole, were 125 mph.

An EF-3 tornado (peak of EF-1 in Stoddard County) formed near County Road 793, snapping a power pole, then tracked northeastward, crossing into New Madrid County at County Road 799. Peak winds for the brief Stoddard County segment of the tornado were 90 mph.

An EF-2 tornado began on the east side of Dexter, then shifted from east-northeasterly towards north-northeasterly on its trek across Stoddard County, crossing the Little River into Scott County. As the tornado approached Crowder, the tornado destroyed a newer, well-built barn. In Crowder, numerous trees were uprooted and lost large limbs. Just east of Vanduser, the tornado removed most of a newer metal roof from a house. The tornado finally veered more to the northeast, snapping tree limbs and overturning irrigation equipment before lifting just east of the community of Morley. Estimated peak winds for the Scott County portion of the tornado were 115 mph.

An EF-3 tornado (max EF-1 in this portion of Scott County) formed in Stoddard County, then tracked northeastward through New Madrid County into Scott County at Butler St in southwest Sikeston. Damage to trees, along with some damage to roofs, occurred along Butler St, Shelby Dr, and Dempster St, before crossing back briefly into New Madrid County. Peak winds for this Scott County portion were 100 mph.

An EF-3 tornado (max EF-2 for this second Scott County portion) formed in Stoddard County, then tracked northeastward through New Madrid County into Scott County at Butler St in southwest Sikeston, then crossing back briefly into New Madrid County, re-entering Scott County near the intersection of Montgomery St and W Murray Ln. The tornado did extensive and severe tree damage through the south side of Sikeston. Approaching and crossing Malone Ave, the tornado removed part of the roof of a school building and a nearby former farm supply store, where cinder block walls also collapsed. North of Malone Ave, the tornado collapsed a tall wooden light pole at a ball field, and removed most of the roof of a house. The tornado turned more northeast as it exited Sikeston, doing damage to trees, power lines, and outbuildings before ending in the community of Diehlstadt. Peak winds for this second Scott County portion were 120 mph.

The deaths

0 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

29 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:38 UTC, 29 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:37 UTC and running to 13:34 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. 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 Paducah radar (KPAH), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:06 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.