EF2 Tornado — Linn, Missouri

2023-05-06 · near Hecla, Linn, Missouri

Event narrative

After creating a brief tornado in the city of Trenton the supercell went on to produce a more massive and long-lived tornado across central Linn County. No incorporated cities were directly impacted by the tornado, but several residences across the county were damaged. The most extensive residential damage occurred just north of Linneus as the storm crossed Highway 5. The tornado eventually dissipated east of Linneus before producing again as it approached Bucklin. One notable aspect of this event was the extreme rear flank downdraft, which produced some of the more extensive damage. This damage was determined to be straight line winds due to being 1-2 miles away from the main tornado circulation.

Wider weather episode

On the afternoon of May 6 strong thunderstorms formed in far northwest Missouri. Through the afternoon these storms strengthened as they moved east across northern Missouri, ultimately turning into robust supercells that started diving southeast toward Highway 36. Along the way they produced giant hail reaching, and perhaps exceeding 4 inches at times. As the main storm pushed southeast toward Linneus, Missouri it produced a tornado that at times was several hundred yards wide. This tornado produced EF-2 damage just north of Linneus. Perhaps as noteworthy, if not more so, was the extremely strong and wide rear flank downdraft that produced some intense damage well south of the main tornado track. This RFD destroyed numerous homes along the way and produced extreme tree damage to the city of Linneus, which was largely spared a direct hit from the actual tornado. Overall the storm produced three separate tornadoes, the most noteworthy of which was the EF-2 just north of Linneus, Missouri.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.9300, -93.3100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1104355. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.