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EF3 tornado in Laclede County, Missouri

Tornado January 7, 2008 · Laclede County, Missouri

EF3
Rating
45.3 mi
Whole path
300 yd
Path width
2
Deaths
18
Injuries
$18.0M
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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

This is an extension of the Webster County tornado. A National Weather Service storm survey revealed that an EF-3 tornado tracked across Laclede County. Numerous homes and outbuildings south of Lebanon were destroyed while 12 were injured.

The wider storm

An unusual mid winter tornado outbreak occurred over southwest and central Missouri. 31 tornadoes struck the region within a 15 hour time frame on 7 January into early morning 8 January. Two tornadoes intensified to EF-3 status while five tornadoes caused EF-2 damage. All other tornadoes during this outbreak were surveyed and given EF-0 and EF-1 status. Multiple training supercells spawned most of these tornadoes that occurred along the Interstate 44 corridor. Toward the end of this episode, a broken squall line spawned numerous EF-0 and EF-1 tornadoes across the southern Missouri Ozarks.

Began near Conway (37.4860, -92.7777).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Greene County 1 deadEF3 Pulaski CountyEF2 Barry CountyEF2 Greene CountyEF2 Laclede CountyEF2 Greene CountyEF1 McDonald CountyEF1 Barry CountyEF1 Barry CountyEF1 Greene CountyEF1 Christian CountyEF1 Christian CountyEF1 Webster CountyEF1 Douglas CountyEF1 Wright CountyEF1 Shannon CountyEF1 Shannon CountyEF1 Phelps CountyEF0 McDonald CountyEF0 Barry CountyEF0 Lawrence CountyEF0 St. Clair CountyEF0 Taney CountyEF0 Webster CountyEF0 Douglas CountyEF0 Howell CountyEF0 Oregon CountyEF0 Maries CountyEF0 Benton CountyEF0 Webster Countyand 1 more

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 73747. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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