EF0 tornado, Zwanzig to Gravois Mills, Missouri, April 17, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF0, preliminary

Date

April 17, 2026

Touchdown

7:59 PM CDT (00:59 UTC)

Lifted

8:01 PM CDT (01:01 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.1 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Morgan County

Touchdown point

38.386, -92.693

Lift-off point

38.397, -92.673

Highest wind the damage implies

85 mph

Surveyed by

NWS SGF

Survey last edited

April 19, 2026

Record number

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

An NWS survey team found damage associated with a tornado that tracked north of Barnett, MO. Damage included tree debris blown to the east and north, and metal rods sheltering hay bales bent. These results are preliminary, and an additional extension of the path to the northeast and southwest may be warranted with further analysis.

Written by NWS SGF in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

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 90 mph.

• Metal rods sheltering hay bales bent. Tree debris blown east and north.
• Several trees uprooted in a cyclonic pattern. Window broken in home. Two outbuildings damaged as well.
• Debris thrown mainly east with some north. Trees were also uprooted northward.
• Limbs down with sporadic uprooted trees along McCasland Rd.

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

A vigorous low-pressure system and cold front pushed through the Plains and the Ozarks, interacting with a warm, moist air mass as a strong upper-level trough and a veered wind profile created high wind shear and instability. This set the stage for supercellular development that evolved into bowing line segments. This setup brought destructive straight-line wind gusts of 60-70 mph, with isolated gusts reaching up to 75 mph. Hail up to 2 inches occurred and 5 tornadoes touched down in Benton and Morgan Counties.

A National Weather Survey determined that an EF0 tornado caused debris from a barn and outbuildings to be thrown mainly east with some north near the beginning of the tornadoes track. Numerous trees were also uprooted and damaged along with many large limbs downed along McCasland Road. The tornado tracked for about 1.25 miles with a path width of 100 yards and maximum winds of 80mph.

A combination of ground National Weather Service surveys and Sentinel-2 satellite data concluded an EF1 tornado occurred 2 miles north of Gravois Mills. Several trees were uprooted in a cyclonic pattern and multiple other trees and limbs were damaged along the tornado's path. A window on a home was broken and two outbuildings suffered damage. Along the slightly over 7 mile track of the tornado maximum winds were 90mph with a width of 300 yards.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:36 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:29 UTC and running to 02:00 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 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 19:53 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 01:01 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.