EF2 Tornado — Cooper, Missouri

2025-04-02 · near Pilot Grove, Cooper, Missouri

Event narrative

A tornado with an estimated peak wind of 115 mph (EF-2) traveled for around 6.3 miles across portions of western Cooper County, Missouri, impacting the town of Pilot Grove and surrounding areas. The tornado damage path began just southwest of downtown Pilot Grove, where it caused some minor damage to an outbuilding at a farmstead. The tornado then traveled to the northeast, where it caused minor damage to the roofs of homes on W Bock Street and the Katy Manor on Prospect Street. It then caused damage to several structures along W Harris Street near the intersection of W 3rd Street. In this location, a manufactured home was thrown 100 feet off its cinder blocks and completely destroyed. Large trees were uprooted onto the roof of a home next to the destroyed manufactured home, and an outbuilding was destroyed. The tornado continued to move to the north northeast, where it caused severe damage to a newly well built barndominium style home along Route M just south of Immele Road. After this, the tornado roughly paralleled Route 135, where it damaged numerous houses, completely destroyed outbuildings, caused extensive tree damage, and snapped numerous power poles. The area between the barndominium near Route M and Immele Road and along Route 135 up to Chouteau Springs Rd is where the most extensive damage occurred, with maximum estimated winds up to 115 mph (EF-2), as well as the widest part of the tornado damage path (up to 200 yards). The tornado then turned more northward, with limited observed damage. A small outbuilding was severely damaged along the south outer road of Interstate 70. No damage was observed north of Interstate 70.

Wider weather episode

During the morning hours of April 2nd, storms brought severe weather to portions of Missouri.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.8643, -92.9317)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1233576. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.