EF2 Tornado — Taney, Missouri

2012-02-29 · near Branson Mem Arpt, Taney, Missouri

Event narrative

This is a continuation of the EF-2 rated tornado that touched down in Stone County at 01:13 CST then tracked into western Taney County west of Branson. The path length in Taney County was near 16 miles and the overall path length was approximately 22 miles. While mostly rated EF1 in Taney County, there was evidence of EF2 damage as well. The tornado caused 37 injuries as it tracked down the business district of Branson, heavily damaging 14 theaters and attractions, 25 restaurants and 21 hotels down the Branson Strip. Additional damage also occurred to several other small businesses and two shopping centers. The tornado skipped through residential areas in unincorporated portions of the county and in portions of Branson severely damaging or destroying around 100 homes including several mobile homes. The tornado then heavily damaged the Branson Landing including Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel Complex before moving into more rural areas east of Branson and lifting near Kissee Mills. Nearly 70 percent of the windows of the Hilton were blown out or damaged.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.6354, -93.3211)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 364196. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.