EF3 Tornado — Scott, Missouri

2013-11-17 · near Vanduser, Scott, Missouri

Event narrative

Two stick built homes were destroyed. One of these homes had complete roof loss, as well as most exterior walls and some interior walls blown out. A vehicle was blown out of the garage. The other home had a large portion of the roof blown off and some exterior walls blown out. Three empty railroad cars were overturned. A 60 by 80 foot building was blown away. Three mobile homes were completely destroyed. Numerous other mobile homes sustained moderate to major damage. Several irrigation systems were blown around. Many dozens of large or very large trees were snapped. Nine power poles were snapped. The tornado was videotaped as it crossed parts of the county. Peak winds were estimated near 140 mph. This tornado was spawned by the supercell thunderstorm that would later spawn a 42-mile long EF-3 tornado in western Kentucky and the southern tip of Illinois.

Wider weather episode

Supercell thunderstorms developed along a pre-frontal low pressure trough over southeast Missouri. Very strong wind fields coupled with moderate amounts of instability resulted in a couple of supercell thunderstorms, both of which produced tornadoes. The storms moved through the warm sector of a low pressure system characterized by mixed-layer capes around 1000 j/kg. Southerly surface winds transported rich low-level moisture north of the Ohio River, with dew points in the mid 60's. Areas of partial sunshine immediately preceding the convection bolstered instability. The low level wind shear was very strong, with 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity at or above 500. Strong southerly surface winds ahead of the storms gusted to around 45 mph during the late morning and early afternoon hours. These strong winds were along and northwest of a line from Poplar Bluff to Cape Girardeau.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.0209, -89.7338)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 480997. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.