EF0 tornado, Blue Spgs to Napoleon, Missouri, May 6, 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 6, 2024

Touchdown

11:39 PM CDT (04:39 UTC)

Lifted

11:45 PM CDT (04:45 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.4 miles (7.1 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Jackson and Lafayette counties

Touchdown point

39.077, -94.120

Lift-off point

39.129, -94.072

Record number

2405062239-02

38 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Talk w WCM: pavilion next to park and dog park
• Siding as well wrapped around basketball ball ho
• Damage to several travel trailers. One was rolled into the ditch from the lot 20 to 30 yards.
• May not be point damage since fence is older

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

In the late evening hours of May 6th and early morning hours of May 7th, several severe linear features moved through Missouri from west to east. These produced widespread 60 mph straight line wind damage with numerous embedded QLCS mesovortices and a few confirmed QLCS tornadoes.

NWS storm survey confirmed a 5.5 mile long EF-1 tornado associated with a QLCS that began near the intersection of Missouri 7 Highway and Wyatt Road in south Blue Springs where it destroyed a small gazebo in a residential area. The tornado then continued to the northeast, where it damaged several commercial buildings on SW Eagles Parkway in Grain Valley. The tornado then crossed Interstate 70 in Grain Valley, where it blew over a semi truck and flipped two RV trailers from an RV dealership into a ditch. The damage path ended just north of Interstate 70 in Grain Valley. Estimated wind speeds were as high as 100 mph.

An EF0 tornado developed from the same mesovortex that produced the Grain Valley tornado a few minutes later. The tornado began north of Oak Grove, damaging trees at several farm residences along Hudnall Road and Doris Neer Road in far eastern Jackson County. The tornado moved northeast in northwestern Lafayette County, uprooting a tree along Old Santa Fe Trail and damaging several others northeast to State Highway 24. Utility wires were damaged by the tornado along the highway as well. The tornado then moved northeast, crossing Chestnut Street south of Napoleon. An outbuilding was damaged, and several trees were downed or snapped near their tops along this stretch. The tornado appears to have dissipated as it approached Napoleon, with only minor damage to tree limbs observed south of State Highway 224.

An EF0 tornado developed from the same mesovortex that produced the Grain Valley tornado a few minutes later. The tornado began north of Oak Grove, damaging trees at several farm residences along Hudnall Road and Doris Neer Road in far eastern Jackson County. The tornado moved northeast in northwestern Lafayette County, uprooting a tree along Old Santa Fe Trail and damaging several others northeast to State Highway 24. Utility wires were damaged by the tornado along the highway as well. The tornado then moved northeast, crossing Chestnut Street south of Napoleon. An outbuilding was damaged, and several trees were downed or snapped near their tops along this stretch. The tornado appears to have dissipated as it approached Napoleon, with only minor damage to tree limbs observed south of State Highway 224.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:31 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:47 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:41 UTC and running to 05:14 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. The outlook in force was issued at 00:50 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 Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:40 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

40 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.