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EF1 tornado in Madison County, Missouri

Tornado May 25, 2011 · Madison County, Missouri

EF1
Rating
52.7 mi
Whole path
50 yd
Path width
2
Injuries
$800K
Damage as recorded

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

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 EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

The tornado originated in Carter County then crossed into Wayne County (WFO Paducah's CWA) before crossing into Madison County about 3 miles southwest of Buckhorn and travelled to the northeast. In Madison County, numerous large trees were blown down before the tornado lifted and dissipated about a mile northwest of Buckhorn. The total path length for the tornado was 47.4 miles with a max width of 1200 yards and a max EF rating of EF3.

The wider storm

Strong area of low pressure moved into the forecast area with a dry line out ahead of the main cold front. Storms fired up along and just ahead of the dry line beginning in the early afternoon hours. There were numerous reports of large hail with isolated damaging winds and tornadoes with this event.

Began near Buckhorn (37.3147, -90.3437).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 323238. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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