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F2 tornado in Polk County, Missouri

Tornado May 4, 2003 · Polk County, Missouri

Rating

72.0 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$48.7M

Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

The wider storm

This tornado is a continuation of the Cedar County tornado that produced F-3 damage in the city of Stockton. The tornado remained on the ground across rural sections of northern Polk County. The tornado destroyed 180 homes and outbuildings while damaging 70. The structural damage was estimated at 3.7 million dollars, with an additional one million dollars of agricultural loss. The tornado continued on the ground into extreme southeastern Hickory County.

Began near Dunnegan (37.7333, -93.6333).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5358442. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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