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EF2 tornado in Dunklin County, Missouri

Tornado February 24, 2018 · Dunklin County, Missouri

EF2

Rating

41.9 mi

Whole path

150 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$2.5M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Clay County, Arkansas → Dunklin County → New Madrid County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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

The tornado tracked from Clay County, AR to Dunklin County. Most of the damage was in Malden where a number of homes were damaged. A few homes, trees and power poles were damaged from the St. Francis River to Malden. The path was intermittent. The tornado crossed into New Madrid County and then lifted. Estimated peak wind along the entire track was 115 mph.

The wider storm

A strong cold front interacted with a very unstable airmass across the Midsouth during the afternoon and evening hours of February 24h. All facets of severe weather occurred.

Began near Wilhelmina (36.4796, -90.1591).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 740038. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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