EF2 Tornado — Pettis, Missouri

2011-05-25 · near Sedalia, Pettis, Missouri

Event narrative

At 1122CST an EF2 tornado touched down 2.7 miles south southeast of Sedalia. The tornado traveled north, and lifted 0.7 miles southeast of Sedalia at 1128CST. Heavy damage to several businesses, was observed along highway 65, with 70 mobile homes in two different mobile home parks, destroyed or heavily damaged. Several homes were also damaged or destroyed. A tanker truck was overturned. Power poles were snapped off. Twenty people suffered minor injuries.

Wider weather episode

A very warm and moist airmass had advected northwest into the area, during the morning hours of May 25, 2011, with the development of an intensifying warm front, near the Highway 50 corridor. Due to ample lift, provided by the strong upper level storm system just west of Kansas City, a little bit of clearing, made the rapid development of thunderstorms along and ahead of the cold front possible, as early as 10 am. As these storms lifted northward and rotated around the surface area of low pressure, they would rapidly begin to rotate, as they reached the enhanced winds near the warm front. Once thunderstorm activity crossed over the warm front into northern Missouri, and into a slightly cooler and more stable airmass, they would still indicate rotation, but the environment prevented further tornadic activity.

There were nearly two dozen reports of either funnel clouds or tornadoes, with seven of the tornado reports in Missouri, being confirmed by NWS damage survey crews and/or law enforcement. The tornadoes that occurred, were associated with the smaller cousin of the classic central plains supercell thunderstorm, called a mini- or low-topped supercell thunderstorm. Mini-supercells, typically occur in association with a cold-core upper level low pressure system, and are much smaller in height and areal expanse, than the classic supercell storm. But regardless of their size, mini-supercells still possess the mechanics to produce brief, and seen in the next paragraph about Sedalia, violent tornadoes.

An EF-2 tornado, associated with winds up to 135 mph, damaged or destroyed numerous single family homes, and businesses, severely damaged two mobile home parks, blew over several tanker trucks, and injured 20 people, as it roared through the southern part of Sedalia, Missouri. In addition, several school buses, located in the school district bus barn, were damaged by the tornado.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.6619, -93.2200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 313424. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.