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EF1 tornado in Polk County, Missouri

Tornado February 28, 2012 · Polk County, Missouri

EF1
Rating
18.4 mi
Whole path
100 yd
Path width
$250K
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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

This is a continuation of the EF-1 rated tornado that touched down in eastern Dade County at 23:26 and continued into Polk County west of Aldrich before lifting two miles southeast of Aldrich. The tornado damaged or destroyed a total of 10 barns and outbuildings along with causing roof damage to two homes. Most of this damage was in Dade County. The tornado crossed both the Big Sac and Little Sac arms of the Stockton Lake.

The wider storm

A strong system moved across the Midwest and brought a round of severe storms to the Ozarks late on the 28th and early on the 29th of February. A squall line with embedded bows and super cellular type storms produced large hail and very strong damaging winds along with several deadly and destructive tornadoes.

Began near Knox (37.5145, -93.6242).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 363340. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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