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EF1 tornado in Pulaski County, Missouri

Tornado May 23, 2019 · Pulaski County, Missouri

EF1
Rating
11.0 mi
Whole path
440 yd
Path width
$155K
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

A National Weather Service storm survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado with maximum winds of 94 mph began in a wooded area about 4 miles south of Hazelgreen and continued east crossing Prairie Creek into Pulaski County. As the tornado moved east across Pulaski County, it uprooted or snapped numerous trees as it moved through a wooded area before crossing Highway K and the Gasconade River twice. It proceeded across Smokey and Seminole Lane and through a heavily wooded area. As it crossed Highway 17 it overturned or damaged three mobile homes and damaged several outbuildings along Sunnyside Road. Minor roof damage occurred to one home. The tornado then continued east across more heavily wooded areas before lifting just east of Skagway Road.

The wider storm

Multiple rounds of storms producing heavy rainfall, severe winds, hail and tornadoes moved across the Missouri Ozarks from May 20th and into the early morning hours of May 24th as upper level disturbances interacted with a slow moving but powerful storm system over the central Plains. Tornadoes occurred with each round, with the strongest and most numerous tornadoes occurring during the late afternoon and evening of the 22nd. On the anniversary of the Joplin Tornado off 2011, another tornado, rated EF-3 struck the north side of Joplin. This storm system eventually produced subsequent tornadoes in Golden City, Eldon and Jefferson City. Unfortunately there were three fatalities as a result of the tornado in Golden City. The cumulative rainfall caused areas of flash flooding with some flooding lingering across the region. Some locations in southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri reported in excess of 8 inches of rainfall over the 72 hour period. .

Began near Laquey (37.7150, -92.4120).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 828177. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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