EF1 tornado, Cabool Arpt, Missouri, March 15, 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

March 15, 2026

Touchdown

3:37 PM CDT (20:37 UTC)

Lifted

3:39 PM CDT (20:39 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Texas County

Touchdown point

37.176, -92.069

Lift-off point

37.176, -92.064

Highest wind the damage implies

94 mph

Surveyed by

NWS SGF

The office's name for it

Simmons

Survey last edited

March 17, 2026

Record number

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

A NWS survey team concluded that a brief EF-1 tornado touched down between Cabool and Simmons in Texas County, with maximum winds of 94 mph. Two barns were destroyed, with several trees uprooted.

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 94 mph.

• 2 barns destroyed. Most debris blown easterly, but wall panels also pushed southwest and west. Trees uprooted in convergent pattern. Tornado touched down and lifted just west and east of this location.
• Trees uprooted to the N-NE on south side of track. Trampoline thrown ESE on both side of track. Donkey barn lifted and pushed N-NE on south side of track.
• Trees uprooted and snapped pointed to the NE. Further south in same location branches pushed to the NNW. Convergent.
• Two large pine trees. One snapped with diameter around a foot and another uprooted. Laying to the E and ENE. Approximate end location of Willow Springs tornado.

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

A line of thunderstorms moved across southern Missouri during the afternoon and evening of March 15th. Several tornadoes occurred within this line of storms.

A NWS survey team concluded that a brief EF-1 tornado touched down between Cabool and Simmons in Texas County, with maximum winds of 94 mph. Two barns were destroyed, with several trees uprooted.

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 tornado watch, issued at 18:33 UTC and running to 22:37 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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 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.

West Plains (UNO), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:37 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.