EF1 tornado, Southard to Big Piney, Missouri, March 14, 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

March 14, 2025

Touchdown

7:12 PM CDT (00:12 UTC)

Lifted

7:36 PM CDT (00:36 UTC)

On the ground

24 minutes

Path length

22.3 miles (35.8 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$320,000

Counties

Laclede, Pulaski and Texas counties

Touchdown point

37.500, -92.340

Lift-off point

37.706, -92.029

Record number

2503141812-01

38 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 97 mph.

• Evident tree damage on high resolution satellite imagery.
• Evident tree damage on high resolution satellite imagery. Point added by GIS Mutual Aid team.
• Images received via FB of outbuilding roof removed and damaged.
• Large tree limbs broken. End of radar tornado debris signature.

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

Severe thunderstorms occurred during the late afternoon and evening hours of March 14th. Seven tornadoes occurred east of Springfield including an EF-3 tornado in Bakersfield, Missouri. Large hail to the golfballs and damaging winds also occurred with these storms.

An EF1 tornado with peak winds around 90 mph started just west of Lynchburg and tracked northeast into far northwestern Texas County. In Laclede County, the tornado damaged numerous barns and damaged the roof of a home. Numerous trees were uprooted and damaged. The tornado then tracked northeast into Texas County.

An EF1 tornado with peak winds around 90 mph continued from Wright County into far northwestern Texas County north of Plato. In Texas County, the tornado uprooted numerous tree. The tornado then tracked northeast into Pulaski County.

An EF1 tornado with peak winds around 90 mph continued from Texas County into southern Pulaski County, including Fort Leonard Wood. In Pulaski County, the tornado damaged outbuildings and uprooted numerous trees.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:10 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:03 UTC and running to 04:00 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 Moderate 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 19:58 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), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:08 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

53 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.