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EF0 tornado in Scott County, Missouri

Tornado May 25, 2011 · Scott County, Missouri

EF0
Rating
0.4 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
$1K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 couple of trees and tree limbs were down along and either side of Interstate 55 at the 80-mile marker. A funnel cloud was reported at this location by a trained spotter. Peak winds were estimated near 70 mph.

The wider storm

Numerous strong to severe thunderstorms occurred in the warm sector of a low pressure system over central Missouri. The air mass in the warm sector was very unstable, with afternoon mixed-layer cape values in the 2500 to 4000 j/kg range. A 65 to 75 knot mid level jet was located across Arkansas, with the nose of the jet moving into western Kentucky. This feature enhanced the lift and strong deep-layer shear already in place, creating an environment very favorable for supercells and tornadoes. A 40 to 55 knot low level jet across eastern Arkansas moved into western Kentucky during the evening, resulting in a long-track strong tornado.

Began near Benton (37.0800, -89.5400).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 302352. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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