EF3 Tornado — Jackson, Missouri

2017-03-06 · near Tarsney Lakes, Jackson, Missouri

Event narrative

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.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.9590, -94.2394)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 686605. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.