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EF3 tornado in Phelps County, Missouri

Tornado December 31, 2010 · Phelps County, Missouri

EF3
Rating
11.0 mi
Path length
500 yd
Path width
2
Deaths
6
Injuries
$1.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 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

A NWS survey team determined that an EF-3 tornado occurred north of Rolla. The heaviest damage occurred between state Highway E and County Road 8040. Two single wide mobile homes were completely destroyed with debris thrown upstream while the frames were detached. Two fatalities occurred in one of these homes. A two story home had all but its interior walls destroyed. Several cars were thrown with one vehicle thrown over the destroyed home. Minor to moderate roof and tree damage occurred at various locations near the starting point to Highway 63 north of Rolla. There was primarily tree damage between Highway 63 and Highway 68.

The wider storm

Between the evening of the 30th and the morning of the 31st, two separate lines of thunderstorms produced significant severe weather across southwest Missouri including damaging wind, large hail, and deadly tornadoes. The first round of storms lifted out of Arkansas late on the evening of the 30th and the second round moved out of western Kansas shortly before daybreak on the 31st.

Began near Rolla Downtown Arpt (37.9394, -91.8018).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

9 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 267577. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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