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EF3 tornado in Stoddard County, Missouri

Tornado February 29, 2012 · Stoddard County, Missouri

EF3
Rating
20.0 mi
Path length
700 yd
Path width
1
Death
$150K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 700 yards (0.40 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

Over 50 structures were damaged, almost half of which were completely destroyed. Most of the structures were mobile homes, barns, and outbuildings. Houses sustained mainly minor damage, but one site-built home was seriously damaged and another was destroyed. Peak winds were estimated near 140 mph. The average path width was 550 yards.

The wider storm

A squall line with embedded sustained supercells crossed southeast Missouri. The embedded supercells raced east-northeast at 60 to 70 mph, while the line moved southeast at a slower rate. The storms strengthened as they encountered richer low-level moisture, with surface dew points around 60 degrees spreading rapidly north-northeastward up the Mississippi Valley. Intense low to mid-level wind fields maintained the intensity of tornadic storms despite weak instability due to lack of solar heating. A south-southwesterly low level jet from 60 to 70 knots veered to west-southwest around 75 knots at 500 mb.

Began near Asherville (36.9000, -90.1891).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Bollinger CountyEF2 Cape Girardeau CountyEF2 Bollinger CountyEF1 Stoddard County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 359709. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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