EF3 Tornado — Stoddard, Missouri

2012-02-29 · near Asherville, Stoddard, Missouri

Event narrative

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.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.9000, -90.1891)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 359709. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.