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EF3 tornado in Jackson County, Missouri

Tornado March 6, 2017 · Jackson County, Missouri

EF3
Rating
17.7 mi
Whole path
400 yd
Path width
12
Injuries

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Jackson County → Lafayette County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

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 EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

On the evening of March 6 a supercell formed in eastern Kansas and moved ESE into the southern portions of the Kansas City metro area. It produced a weak tornado near Leawood, Kansas then another near Lee's Summit, Missouri. As the storm moved over Lake Lotawana it produced a third and more devastating tornado that went through the city of Oak Grove, Missouri, producing EF-3 damage. The most extensive damage was to some residences in Oak Grove that saw well built permanent foundation houses completely removed from the foundation and toppled over. There were 12 reported injuries in Oak Grove from this tornado. The tornado continued into Lafayette County and toward Odessa, Missouri.

The wider storm

On the evening of March 6, 2017 a line of severe thunderstorms formed, then moved into eastern Kansas and western and central Missouri. Ahead of and along this line of storms supercells formed and produced large hail, damaging winds, and several tornadoes. Officially there were 11 tornadoes recorded in the EAX portion of Missouri, with a 12th tornado recorded in Leawood, Kansas, on the Kansas side of the EAX CWA. The most notable of the tornadoes were the EF-2 and EF-3 tornadoes that impacted Smithville, Missouri and Oak Grove, Missouri respectively. According to news reports there were 12 injuries associated with the Oak Grove tornado, but despite the widespread significant damage there were no fatalities. As the line of storms moved eastward several embedded supercells and mesovortices produced several more tornadoes across northern and central Missouri. By the end of the event, officially there were four EF-1 tornadoes, one EF-2 tornado (Smithville, MO), one EF-3 (Oak Grove, MO), and five EF-0 tornadoes in Missouri. The Leawood Kansas tornado was rated EF-0 as well, rounding out the 12 confirmed tornadoes in the EAX CWA from that evening.

Began near Tarsney Lakes (38.9590, -94.2394).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 686605. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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