Thunderstorm Wind — Cape Girardeau, Missouri

2009-05-08 · near Oak Ridge, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Event narrative

Widespread damaging winds affected northern parts of the county. Over 1,000 trees were blown down, along with power lines. Many roads were blocked. The trees fell on homes, vehicles, and power lines. Power poles were snapped. Extended power outages lasting up to several days were reported. Barns and sheds were blown down. Just west of Oak Ridge, 259 trees were blown down on a single farm. The house and a garage on the farm received holes in their roofs. Windows were blown out of at least one house in Oak Ridge. Towns that experienced the worst damage were north of Jackson, including Daisy and Pocahontas. Several trees were blown down in Jackson, including one that landed on a car.

Wider weather episode

A mature, very intense derecho moved rapidly east along a stationary front across the Mid Mississippi Valley into the Lower Ohio Valley. With a very moist and unstable atmosphere, along with strongly veering winds aloft, embedded tornadic supercells were associated with the derecho. Widespread damaging winds were the primary impact. The bowing portion of the system caused extensive damage from the Poplar Bluff area west. The comma head at the northern end of the bow caused locally catastrophic damage along and north of a Marble Hill to Jackson line. Winds were estimated slightly over 100 mph there.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.5000, -89.7300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 164144. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.