EF0 tornado, Clarkton, Missouri, March 15, 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

March 15, 2026

Touchdown

6:44 PM CDT (23:44 UTC)

Lifted

6:50 PM CDT (23:50 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

2.9 miles (4.7 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Dunklin and New Madrid counties

Touchdown point

36.450, -89.993

Lift-off point

36.455, -89.941

Highest wind the damage implies

85 mph

Surveyed by

NWS PAH and NWS MEG

The office's name for it

Clarkton, MO

Survey last edited

March 17, 2026

Record number

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

A tornado touched down just east of Baird between County Roads 316 and 320 overturning multiple center pivots. The tornado continued into the town of Clarkton, causing roof damage to a state school, convenience store, and multiple homes along Page Street just south of W Highway 162. Additional damage was noted to an outbuilding south of E Highway 162, with debris spreading into a nearby field. The tornado lifted just before the town of Gideon.

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

12 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MEG and NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Debris in field. End of track.

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

A negatively tilted upper-level trough began to deepen as it moved from the northern Rockies into the Middle Mississippi Valley on Sunday afternoon, driving a potent cold front eastward. Mid-level heights also began to fall Sunday afternoon as impressive kinematics overspread the region. Moderately steep mid-level lapse rates greater than 7 C/km, along with SBCAPE values of 750-1200 J/kg and storm relative helicity values upwards of 300 m2/s2 developed ahead of the cold front. An impressive line of storms formed along and ahead of the cold front, producing a half dozen weak tornadoes, 75+ mph wind gusts, and large hail across the Mid-South.

A tornado touched down just east of Baird between County Roads 316 and 320 overturning multiple center pivots. The tornado continued into the town of Clarkton, causing roof damage to a state school, convenience store, and multiple homes along Page Street just south of W Highway 162. Additional damage was noted to an outbuilding south of E Highway 162, with debris spreading into a nearby field. The tornado lifted just before the town of Gideon.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:23 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:57 UTC and running to 01:14 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 19:57 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 Memphis radar (KNQA), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:40 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

43 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.