The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Springfield, Missouri confirms that 3 tornadoes struck our County Warning Area during the early morning hours of Thursday, May 3, 2018.
The first and the strongest tornado in this series, an EF-1 with peak winds near 95 miles per hour, hit Christian County at around 2:10 a.m. Surveyors say the tornado touched down around 2 1/2 miles north of Ozark with the damage path beginning near the intersection of North 3rd Street and Sunset Road where minor roof damage occurred (see photo to the left). The storm then moved northeast causing additional roof damage, snapping trees, and destroying outbuildings along its path before lifting near the end of Peartree drive. This tornado had a maximum width of 100 yards and spent around 3 minutes on the ground travleing a total of 1.2 miles.
The second twister clipped the southeastern corner of Greene County at about 2:17 a.m. This EF-0 tornado had peak winds of around 80 miles per hour and spent only a minute on the ground leaving a path just 50 yards wide and about one-quarter of a mile long. A barn was destroyed and trees were uprooted near the intersection of East Farm Road 186 and Farm Road 241 just west of Rogersville.
The third tornado hit Douglas County around 1.5 miles northeast of Squires at around 2:45 a.m. This EF-1 twister had peak winds around 90 miles per hour. It spent about two minutes on the ground traveling a total of three-quarters of a mile with a maximum width of around 75 yards. This tornado destroyed one outbuilding and blew the roof off of a new cattle feeder. Several trees were reportedly uprooted and snapped.
Forecasters say the severe weather came in two waves. The first one hit late in the evening of May 2nd into the early morning hours of May 3rd. This line affected mainly portions of west-central into central Missouri dropping hail up to 1 inch in diameter in St. Clair County. The second line of storms started moving into extreme southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri just before midnight with several damaging wind reports. It was this second line of storms that sparked these brief spin-up tornadoes. Fortunately, no injuries or fatalities have been reported.