Home / Missouri / New Madrid

EF2 tornado in New Madrid County, Missouri

Tornado February 24, 2018 · New Madrid County, Missouri

EF2

Rating

0.9 mi

Path length

150 yd

Path width

Injuries

$750K

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 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

This EF-2 tornado tracked from the south side of Matthews to one mile east of town. Roofs were partially or completely torn off dozens of homes. Semi trucks were blown over and destroyed. Numerous outbuildings were destroyed. A couple of injuries occurred due to windows being blown out of a nursing home. Peak winds were estimated near 120 mph.

The wider storm

Localized flash flooding and a couple of tornadoes occurred across southeast Missouri. A narrow swath of torrential rainfall occurred from Cape Girardeau southwest across Poplar Bluff, where water rescues were conducted. A surface low pressure center tracked rapidly north-northeast from Arkansas to the upper Mississippi Valley, dragging a warm front north across southeast Missouri. Instability was adequate for a couple tornadoes in the presence of very strong wind shear. A very moist air mass resulted in heavy rainfall, which produced localized flash flooding due to the water-logged ground. Most rivers experienced minor flooding.

Began near Matthews (36.7508, -89.5846).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Clay County 1 dead

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 735602. 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.