EF1 tornado, Moundville to Walker, 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

7:30 AM CDT (12:30 UTC)

Lifted

7:44 AM CDT (12:44 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

16.6 miles (26.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.2 million

County

Vernon County

Touchdown point

37.724, -94.452

Lift-off point

37.908, -94.259

Record number

2504020630-01

41 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Roof off hotel, windows broken.
• Multiple outbuildings damaged/destroyed.
• Overturned irrigation system
• Metal roofing pulled from 25% of west end of building

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 NWS survey team found EF2 tornado damage to a home along Highway F to the southwest of Moundville. The tornado moved northeast damaging a few more homes along with barns and numerous trees as it tracked west and north of Moundville. A second tornado that touched down near the same time to the southeast of this path eventually tracked toward and passed the initial tornado to its east as determined by ground surveys and satellite damage imagery. This second tornado tracked into the Nevada area causing extensive damage.

A National Weather Service Storm survey determined that an EF-1 tornado touched down north of Bronaugh and tracked northeast on a route just east of a separate tornado that tracked through the Moundville area. Based upon radar, satellite imagery and ground surveys, the Bronaugh tornado caught up to the initial tornado then continued through Nevada and lifted west of Walker. In it���s early stages, two separate tornado debris signatures were detected by the KSGF 88D radar. Initially causing damage only to trees and barns, the tornado damaged several homes and outbuildings as it tracked toward Nevada, damaged numerous businesses as it crossed Highway 54 at Nevada. The tornado knocked over two sets of four railroad cars sitting on a side rail to the northeast of Nevada yet nearby trees only suffering limb damage. The tornado continued to damage outbuildings and barns as it tracked across open farmland before lifting near Walker.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:16 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:21 UTC and running to 14:43 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:54 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), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:32 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.