Preliminary tornado damage survey from last Saturday
Last Saturday night, a warm front moved throughout much of Northwestern Missouri sparking various scattered strong to severe storms. A few of these storms would lead to tornado warnings, eventually producing multiple confirmed tornadoes. The National Weather Service office in Kansas City sent out a survey team this past Sunday and have released their preliminary damage reports.
The first tornado from the preliminary survey which is subject to changes indicates a tornado that touched down just to the northwest of Linneus in Linn county. This tornado was rated an EF-2 with a track length of nearly 12 miles.
The National Weather Service is currently identifying a second tornado just to the southeast closer to brookfield. This second tornado is subject to change as the survey team has not yet been able to identify if this is just a continuation of the first tornado or a completely separate touchdown. This is due to the road network in the area not giving ample access to the land needed to be surveyed.
A third tornado was identified just to the northwest in Grundy county where a short tracked EF-0 made its way into Trenton Missouri producing a tornado that was only 25 yards wide.
Tornadoes are rated using the Enhanced-fujita scale. This scale is based off of a tornadoes damage. This could mean that if a tornado went through an open field with no trees or structures, it could be rated well below the rating of the same tornado if it went through a neighborhood. The rating compares the structures building materials and bases the wind speed on what damage occurred.