A National Weather Service survey team has confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down south of Cape Girardeau last night. The twister traveled a damage path about four miles long and 150 yards wide with peak wind speeds of 105 miles-per-hour. It touched down at about 7:05 last night.
The team had earlier determined a microburst is what caused wind damage in south Cape Girardeau last night. That event is believed to have happened at about 7:15 with winds peaking at about 95 miles per hour.
A microburst is a narrow column of sinking air that can produce straight-line winds that can cause damage in some cases comparable to that cause by tornadoes.
Another team says a weak, EF-0 tornado touched down across the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau, Illinois about 5 minutes after the microburst on the Missouri side.
