EF1 tornado, South Fork to West Plains, Missouri, April 2, 2025

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

April 2, 2025

Touchdown

3:16 PM CDT (20:16 UTC)

Lifted

3:21 PM CDT (20:21 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Howell County

Touchdown point

36.663, -91.899

Lift-off point

36.678, -91.890

Record number

2504021416-01

9 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 94 mph.

• 1 ft diameter branches snapped, numerous trees uprooted, some branches rotted but some were healthy trees.
• Tree damage to numerous trees, damage indicates rotational debris pattern, consistent between both sides of pond.
• Trees fallen in cyclonic manner.
• Metal roof of orange chicken coop blown into nearby barn.

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

Severe thunderstorms moved through southeast Kansas and the Missouri Ozarks during the morning hours on Wednesday, April 2nd, producing a tornado in Nevada and damaging winds. Thunderstorms then redeveloped during the afternoon east of Highway 65 with large hail, damaging winds, flash flooding and a tornado south of West Plains.

A National Weather Service survey team found EF-1 tornado damage southwest of West Plains, Missouri from Highway JJ to County Road 8800. The tornado path length was 1.13 miles long, 350 yards wide, and maximum winds between 95-100 mph. Numerous trees were uprooted along the path. A metal roof of a small farm building was blown off.

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:40 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:49 UTC and running to 22:04 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 19:57 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.

West Plains (UNO), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 148 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:16 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 2025 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

87 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 88 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.