EF1 tornado, Berger Rohlfing Arpt to Peers, Missouri, April 17, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

April 17, 2026

Touchdown

9:29 PM CDT (02:29 UTC)

Lifted

9:34 PM CDT (02:34 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.6 km)

Path width

0 yards (0 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Franklin and Warren counties

Touchdown point

38.645, -91.250

Lift-off point

38.688, -91.217

Highest wind the damage implies

94 mph

Surveyed by

NWS LSX

Survey last edited

May 4, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

19 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Tree felled northward - possibly inflow into tornadic circulation to the north.
• Patch of trees displaced on high res satellite imagery. Point added by GIS Mutual Aid.
• Possible minor crop damage in a faint linear path on high res satellite imagery. Point added by GIS Mutual Aid.
• A few trees displaced/damaged on high res satellite imagery. Point added by GIS Mutual Aid.

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

The environment during the afternoon of April 17th was primed for the development of severe thunderstorms. Semi-discrete convection blossomed ahead of a cold front during the early afternoon, causing wind damage and large hail in portions of central and east-central Missouri. Later in the afternoon, thunderstorms more closely tied to the cold front produced 4 tornadoes in Missouri.

A brief tornado touched down just south of the Missouri River near Etlah. It caused minor damage to trees and possibly crops before crossing the river into Warren County.

The tornado crossed the Missouri River into Warren County south of Pinckney, and moved north-north east, dissipating along Smith Creek Road. Tree damage was observed along the path, with the worst damage consisting of uprooted trees, resulting in estimated wind speeds of approximately 90 mph.

A Tornado Debris Signature off of the KLSX radar appeared just south of the Missouri River and tracked north-northeast. Ground survey was unable to find damage directly associated with tornado, but NWS GIS Mutual Aid analysis of high resolution satellite imagery was able to find tree damage consistent with an EF-0 tornado.

A Tornado Debris Signature off of the KLSX radar continued into Warren County from Franklin County. Ground survey was unable to find damage directly associated with tornado, but NWS GIS Mutual Aid analysis of high resolution satellite imagery was able to find tree damage consistent with an EF-0 tornado.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:33 UTC and running to 03:49 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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.

Washington (FYG), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 48 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:26 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 2026 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

88 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

All 89 of them

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.