EF1 tornado, Middle Grove to Tulip, Missouri, April 27, 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 27, 2026

Touchdown

7:43 AM CDT (12:43 UTC)

Lifted

7:44 AM CDT (12:44 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Monroe County

Touchdown point

39.383, -92.227

Lift-off point

39.383, -92.194

Highest wind the damage implies

90 mph

Surveyed by

NWS LSX

The office's name for it

MiddleGrove

Survey last edited

April 29, 2026

Record number

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

A brief EF-1 tornado touched down in southwestern Monroe County near Route M and Highway 151. The primary damage caused by this tornado was a farm just south of Highway 151. Numerous large tree

limbs were broken on the property with one tree limb pointed to the west. One farm building was collapsed on the western side of the barn. The eastern facing part of the building which was

attached to the cement slab was still standing, while the western facing part of the building had completely collapsed. Due to this, we estimated slightly below the expected wind speed which also

matched the surrounding tree damage.

On the south side of the tornado, a rear inflow jet formed producing multiple straight-line wind damage reports. Damage was primarily across the southwest portion of Monroe County from Highway NN to just north of County Road 95. Damage was primarily

to trees which were blown down facing easterly. However, damage did occur to two farms in which partial or near total collapses occurred to farm outbuildings. Winds likely reached up to 95 mph

in the southern straight-line area.

The National Weather Service would like to thank Steve Jones at Monroe County Emergency Management for their assistance with this survey.

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

66 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EAX and NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• One building had sheet metal damage. Another building with shingle damage.
• Tree snapped to the left of the small farm building. Primary farm building missing shingles. Smaller farm building is destroyed.
• Billboard blown down and chopped trees near U.S. Highway 63.
• Several trees chopped or downed in a grove near Business Route 63 and County Road 2625, with trees down essentially from U.S. 63 to the railraod tracks. A clear path of damage was observed (with chopped trees) in one grove just north of Business Route 63.

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

Multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms passed through the region for nearly the entirety of April 27th. The afternoon round was expected to be the most volatile, with an environment primed for high-end severe weather reflected by an areawide SPC Moderate Risk. What culminated was widespread large to giant hail, wind damage, and two tornadoes in Missouri.

A brief EF-1 tornado touched down in southwestern Monroe County near Route M and Highway 151. The primary damage caused by this tornado was a farm just south of Highway 151. Numerous large tree limbs were broken on the property with one tree limb pointed to the west. One farm building was collapsed on the western side of the barn. The eastern facing part of the building which was attached to the cement slab was still standing, while the western facing part of the building had completely collapsed. Due to this, we estimated slightly below the expected wind speed which also matched the surrounding tree damage.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 09:10 UTC and running to 15:00 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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.

Moberly (MBY), 20 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), 152 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:45 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

28 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.