Home / Missouri / Crawford

EF2 tornado in Crawford County, Missouri

Tornado May 11, 2016 · Crawford County, Missouri

EF2

Rating

4.4 mi

Path length

700 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 700 yards (0.40 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

A tornado touched down along Highway N, 3 miles south-southeast of Bourbon at 8:15 PM CDT causing significant tree damage. A convergent pattern to the uprooted trees was apparent in this location with the rating of EF-1. The tornado continued northeast causing additional tree damage along Plum Tree Road that was rated

EF-0 and EF-1. It strengthened just to the southwest of Rock Road, directly hitting a single story house. It appears the roof was lifted off the house and then the walls collapsed. Significant tree damage, including splitting, topping was noted along Rock Road. The damage in this area was rated EF-2 with maximum winds of 130 MPH.

Debris from the house, including receipts and roofing, were found up to 2.5 miles to the northeast. The tornado continued northeast, but weakened some as it encountered the next residence along Highway FF. Several outbuildings were destroyed at this location, along with roof and chimney damage to the main residence. This damage was rated EF-1. The tornado crossed the highway and entered a quarry where several buildings suffered roof damage. The tornado

strengthened one last time south of Sullivan before dissipating. Hundreds of trees were snapped, twisted and uprooted on a large farm with a very distinct swirling motion observed near the main residence. This damage was rated EF-2 due to the complete leveling of the forest in this location. The tornado quickly dissipated

3 miles southeast of Sullivan before Highway D at 8:28 PM CDT. The county sheriff flew in a helicopter along the path of the tornado, reporting that a total of eight houses were damaged, one destroyed. Overall the tornado was rated EF2 with a path length of 4.43 miles and a max path width of 700 yards.

The wider storm

As a warm front lifted north through the forecast area, thunderstorms developed. Some of the storms became severe with numerous reports of large hail, some damaging winds and an EF2 tornado that occurred near Bourbon and Sullivan Missouri during the evening. The most costly damage occurred from a pair of supercells that dropped baseball to softball size hail across St. Charles County Missouri and produced severe wind gusts in St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis around the lunch hour. There were also a few reports of flash flooding with these storms.

Began near Bourbon (38.1244, -91.2033).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 648222. 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.