EF1 tornado, Chitwood to Joplin, Missouri, April 23, 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 23, 2026

Touchdown

12:14 AM CDT (05:14 UTC)

Lifted

12:19 AM CDT (05:19 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jasper County

Touchdown point

37.091, -94.552

Lift-off point

37.093, -94.533

Highest wind the damage implies

95 mph

Surveyed by

NWS SGF

The office's name for it

Joplin Tornado

Survey last edited

April 24, 2026

Record number

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

An NWS survey concluded an EF1 tornado with peak winds of 95mph damaged an outdoor maintenance storage building at the golf course at the W 2nd Street and S Schifferdecker Ave in Joplin. The torando then tracked to the northeast downing numerous trees in a cyclonic manner. Minor roof damage occurred to a few homes, and several other homes were damaged by trees falling on them.

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

6 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 95 mph.

• Bolted open faced wall flipped northward. Insulation from building to the west blown eastward.
• Trees down northeast, north, southwest.

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

A line of severe thunderstorms brought intense storms to the region during the late evening of the 23rd into the early morning of the 24th. The storms delivered a severe combination of damaging wind gusts, large hail, and an isolated tornado. Moving through the state in the overnight hours, a line of storms impacted Jasper and Newton counties with heavy rain, wind, and lightning. Early morning video documented significant tree damage and downed power lines near 1st and Schifferdecker in Joplin. Widespread wind damage tore the roof off the Joplin Parks and Recreation building and leveled several metal outbuildings.

A National Weather Service survey concluded an EF1 tornado with peak winds of 95mph damaged an outdoor maintenance storage building at the golf course at the W 2nd Street and S Schifferdecker Ave in Joplin. The tornado then tracked to the northeast downing numerous trees in a cyclonic manner. Minor roof damage occurred to a few homes, and several other homes were damaged by trees falling on them.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 02:53 UTC and running to 07:03 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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.

Joplin (JLN), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:16 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 2026 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

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

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.