EF0 tornado, Franks to Shantytown, Missouri, May 7, 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 7, 2024

Touchdown

2:28 AM CDT (07:28 UTC)

Lifted

2:38 AM CDT (07:38 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

9.8 miles (15.8 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$16,000

Counties

Pulaski, Phelps and Maries counties

Touchdown point

37.910, -92.120

Lift-off point

38.020, -92.000

Record number

2405070128-01

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 uprooted trees and large tree limbs broken.
• A few trees uprooted and numerous large limbs snapped.
• A few trees uprooted. Trees laying in different directions.
• A few trees uprooted and large limbs broken.

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 survey found an intermittent EF-0 tornado with maximum winds of 80 mph. The tornado touched down 6 miles south of Dixon near the Gasconade River and tracked to the northeast, uprooting several trees and snapping large limbs along its intermittent path. The tornado then continued its path into far northwest Phelps County and later Maries County.

This is a continuation of an EF-0 tornado that touched down in Pulaski County and tracked through far northwest Phelps County. As the tornado continued its northeastward track, it caused intermittent tree limb damage along the 0.48 miles of the Phelps County portion of the track before moving into Maries County.

This is a continuation of the EF-0 tornado that touched down in Pulaski County and tracked northeast into far northwest Phelps County and finally into Maries County. Once it crossed the Phelps/Maries County line, it continues its intermittent path for 1.07 miles, uprooting a few trees before lifting 5 miles northeast of Dixon.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:06 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 05:56 UTC and running to 08:11 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:10 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), 143 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:26 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

52 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.