A National Weather Service assessment team has confirmed four tornado touchdowns in southeast Missouri during storms Halloween night, including one that crossed the Mississippi River into Kentucky.
That tornado reached EF-1 intensity with winds peaking at 100 miles per hour. It touched down at Wyatt and traveled northeast for six miles before lifting up at Wickliffe, Kentucky. The damage path was up to 200 yards wide. The storm damaged homes in Wyatt, one heavily and a roof on a barn was destroyed. Crops were damaged and trees and power polls were snapped and uprooted.
The strongest tornado was an EF-2 that touched down southwest of Baker at about 7:24 Thursday night with winds up to 115 miles per hour. Its damage path was two miles long and up to 100 yards wide. It leveled sheds and grain bins, overturned farm equipment and snapped and uprooted trees. Two homes’ roofs were damaged and brick was removed from the side of one home.
The team also confirmed an EF-1 tornado touchdown that occurred south of Cape Girardeau at about 7:05. It traveled a damage path nearly 4 miles long and 150 yards wide with peak winds of 105 miles per hour.
What appears to have been the first tornado to touch down was an EF-1 in southeast Bollinger County. It traveled east along a half-mile path beginning one mile west of Leopold. Winds are estimated to have reached up to 95 miles-per-hour. It is believed to have touched down at about 6:54.
A microburst is blamed for wind damage in south Cape Girardeau. That event is thought to have happened at about 7:15 with winds peaking at 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.
Visit the National Weather Service’s Paducah, Kentucky office webpage
