EF3 Tornado — Clay, Missouri

2008-05-02 · near Liberty Mitchell Arp, Clay, Missouri

Event narrative

A brief EF3 tornado developed along the apex of a bow echo, and touched down northwest of Liberty at 12:56 am CST. The tornado tracked east-northeast for nearly one mile before dissipating at 1:00 am. Four homes were destroyed and 117 suffered damage.

Wider weather episode

An early morning line of storms developed across south central Kansas. This line of storms, developed into a Bow Echo, which raced northeast at speeds in excess of 50 mph, into the greater Kansas City metropolitan area and surrounding communities, early on the morning of May 2, 2008. The Bow Echo generated hurricane force winds, which brought widespread wind damage, to areas from Olathe Kansas, northeast through Kansas City, to Brookfield in north central Missouri. As the Bow Echo moved through Kansas City, it spun up a couple of tornadoes along the apex, or nose, of its leading edge. One EF3 tornado moved across the north side of Gladstone, while the other EF2 tornado moved through an area just northwest of Liberty. However, most of the damage was due to the strong straight line winds, that were also occurring along the apex of the Bow Echo. Gladstone reported 20 homes destroyed, 280 homes with damage, and 19 businesses damaged. North Kansas City had 4 homes destroyed, and 117 damaged. Independence had 13 homes and two businesses badly damaged. Six people were injured and damage was in the millions of dollars.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.2929, -94.4903)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 99928. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.