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EF1 tornado in New Madrid County, Missouri

Tornado March 9, 2017 · New Madrid County, Missouri

EF1
Rating
1.1 mi
Path length
150 yd
Path width
$50K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

This tornado moved east along Highway W, causing significant damage to a couple of houses. Portions of the roof, including roof decking, were removed from a couple of houses. A small section of fencing was blown over. Several trees were uprooted. Peak winds were estimated near 95 mph. This tornado was one of several that were spawned from the same eastward-moving supercell.

The wider storm

A cluster of severe thunderstorms over south central Missouri organized into a bowing line of storms as it tracked eastward during the evening. An embedded supercell within the line spawned several tornadoes along an east-west corridor from Ripley County eastward to New Madrid County. A couple of significant tornadoes and damaging wind events accompanied this line, along with large hail. The storms developed along and just ahead of a cold front as it pressed southward into the Lower Ohio Valley and extreme southeast Missouri.

Began near Kewanee (36.6710, -89.6209).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Ripley CountyEF2 New Madrid CountyEF1 Butler CountyEF1 Stoddard CountyEF1 Butler CountyEF1 Stoddard CountyEF0 Stoddard County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 683959. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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