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EF3 tornado in Howell County, Missouri

Tornado March 1, 2007 · Howell County, Missouri

EF3

Rating

15.0 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

Death

$760K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Ozark County → Howell County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This is an extension of the Ozark County tornado. A National Weather Service storm survey revealed that a large tornado ripped through rural sections of southwest Howell County, Missouri. The community of Caulfield experienced a direct hit. Numerous farms and structures were damaged or destroyed. One fatality occurred as the tornado ripped through a mobile home northeast of Caulfield. Four other injuries occurred in the same mobile home. The tornado lifted approximately one mile southwest of the West Plains city limits.

The wider storm

Several severe thunderstorms impacted southern Missouri during the morning hours of March 1st. A classic supercell moved from northern Arkansas and into Ozark and Howell counties. This storm produced an EF-3 tornado that touched down southwest of Caulfield, Missouri, and tracked to areas southwest of West Plains, Missouri. One fatality occurred from this storm as the tornado ripped through a mobile home in rural Howell County.

Began near Caulfield (36.6098, -92.1327).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 23038. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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