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EF1 tornado in Bollinger County, Missouri

Tornado October 24, 2021 · Bollinger County, Missouri

EF1
Rating
24.5 mi
Whole path
400 yd
Path width
$420K
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 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

The tornado crossed into Bollinger County from Wayne County. The tornado directly affected the community of Zalma, where the school gymnasium roof was damaged. Air conditioning units were blown off the school roof. The top half of a two-story barn was destroyed. There was roof damage to a chicken house. Otherwise, the majority of the path was through densely wooded farm country, where numerous trees were uprooted or snapped. Peak winds were estimated near 105 mph.

The wider storm

The severe weather episode began as a series of supercells and transitioned to a squall line. A supercell thunderstorm produced a strong long-track tornado across southeast Missouri that ended in southwest Perry County. A short EF-1 tornado associated with a squall line struck southern Perry County shortly thereafter. A longer track EF-1 tornado also impacted eastern Wayne County into southern Bollinger County. The storms preceded a strong cold front that trailed south-southwest from a low pressure center over west central Illinois. Dew points ahead of the front were in the lower to mid 60's. Instability was strong enough to support severe storms, given that wind shear was quite strong. Mixed-layer capes were around 1000 j/kg.

Began near Gipsy (37.1081, -90.2353).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 984605. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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