TornadoLookup

Home / Missouri / Pettis

F0 tornado in Pettis County, Missouri

Tornado May 4, 2003 · Pettis County, Missouri

F0
Rating
0.5 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
$5K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F0 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F0 meant light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken; the scale paired it with winds of 40–72 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.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Brief tornado touchdown reported by storm spotter with minor damage.

The wider storm

A dry line moved into eastern Kansas on the afternoon of May 4th. Severe thunderstorms quickly erupted in the mid afternoon hours and marched east northeast into Missouri. Several of the severe thunderstorms became tornadic. A supercell thunderstorm produced 4 seperate tornadoes over the northland of Kansas City. The strongest tornadoes reached F4 in intensity and moved over southern portions of Platte and Clay counties. In Platte county 14 buildings were destroyed, 43 suffered major damage and 149 had minor damage. There were no fatalities or injuries and total damage was estimated at $33.95 million dollars.In Clay county total damages were estimated at $91 million dollars. Several hundred homes were either destroyed or had major or minor damage. No fatalities were observed but there were 19 injuries. This was the most significant tornado outbeak in the Kansas City Metropolitan area, since the Pleasant Hill Missouri outbreak in 1977.

Began near La Monte (39.2333, -94.4833).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5358784. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.