EF3 Tornado — Barton, Missouri

2019-05-22 · near Kenoma, Barton, Missouri

Event narrative

A National Weather Service storm survey confirmed an EF-3 tornado with maximum winds of 142 mph. This tornado was the last in a series of at least four tornadoes produced by a supercell that had tracked out of northeast Oklahoma into southwest Missouri. The tornado touched down near the intersection of Redbud and CR 100 in Jasper County and then continued northeast into Barton County just west of SE 70th Lane. Wind speeds increased to 140 mph as the tornado caused significant damage to three homes as it tracked across SE 80th Lane, causing one injury and two fatalities. A third fatality occurred as the tornado destroyed a single wide manufactured home on Highway 126. The roof of another home suffered damage on 126 as well as others on SE 90th Lane before the tornado weakened as it tracked across SE 100th Lane and County Road U before lifting near Highway 160 and 45th Road.

Wider weather episode

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. .

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.3517, -94.1858)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 828197. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.