EF1 tornado, Joplin to Morgan Hgts, Missouri, May 6, 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 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.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 6, 2024

Touchdown

11:38 PM CDT (04:38 UTC)

Lifted

11:39 PM CDT (04:39 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Jasper County

Touchdown point

37.155, -94.375

Lift-off point

37.170, -94.350

Record number

2405062238-01

14 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 98 mph.

• Toenail construction. Weakly built.
• Homeowner says trusses are from garage across street. Verified construction history of garage and wall collapse. Damage to duplex increased because of garage debris.
• Starting point and tracked northeast from here. Tree uprooted.
• Broken tree limbs and occasional uprooted trees along path. Photo taken crossing Connecticut St%

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

A shortwave trough and an associated cold front pushed through the Missouri Ozarks during the late evening of May 6, 2024 and into the early morning hours of May 7, 2024. Thunderstorms developed along the front west of the Ozarks, quickly growing upscale to a linear storm mode by the time they reached southwest Missouri. This line of thunderstorms pushed through the area, causing widespread wind damage, flash flooding, and several tornadoes.

NWS storm survey found a EF-1 tornado with an intermittent damage path across the southeast and east side of Joplin into Duquesne. Maximum winds were estimated at 95 mph. Numerous tree limb damage and uprooted trees along with powerline damage were reported.

NWS storm survey found an EF-1 tornado path just west of Carthage. Maximum winds were estimated at 95 mph. Trees were uprooted, powerlines were snapped, and several roofs were damaged.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:15 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:41 UTC and running to 05:56 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 Springfield radar (KSGF), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:35 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.