EF1 tornado, Linn County, Missouri, May 16, 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

May 16, 2026

Touchdown

6:28 PM CDT (23:28 UTC)

Lifted

6:32 PM CDT (23:32 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Linn County

Touchdown point

40.002, -93.290

Lift-off point

39.985, -93.251

Highest wind the damage implies

110 mph

Surveyed by

NWS EAX

The office's name for it

Linn County MO Tornado 2

Survey last edited

May 17, 2026

Record number

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

The same severe supercell thunderstorm that resulted in the first Linn County tornado, resulted in a second north and east of Shafter, MO. This tornado began at 6:28 PM CDT near the intersection of Daisy and Clark Rd. It continued southeast resulting in EF-1 damage to several farm outbuildings, including a wellbuilt barn. It picked up two empty grain bins and distributed them east-northeast across open pasture. Damage was noted in the tree-lines beyond the property to the southeast. The track was picked back up along highway DD, where wideswaths of EF-1 and EF-0 tree damage were noted along both sides of the highway. The path ends about a half mile before the intersection with Highway Y around 6:32 PM CDT.

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

28 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Swath of trees topped south of DD HWY
• Numerous trunks snapped on both sides of HWY DD
• Complete swath of wooded area north and along highway DD damaged. Snapped trunks and twisted tree tops.
• Two wood poles broken along highway DD.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:27 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:55 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:40 UTC and running to 03:57 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 19:59 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.

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 157 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:26 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

5 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.