Photo courtesy National Weather Service.
The National Weather Service in Springfield has confirmed that an EF-1 tornado touched down last night near Hoberg in southwest Missouri. The twister caused minor damage to one home and destroyed a few outbuildings, an irrigation system, two ski boats, and trees. Storm assessors measured winds of up to 95 miles per hour from the storm. No injuries were reported.
Meteorologist and Hydrologist Megan Terry tells Missourinet it’s somewhat unique to have tornadoes swirling around in the Show-Me State this time of year. She says funnels during the winter months tend to be lower-level ones with ratings of EF-0 and EF-1.
The last time a tornado touched down in Missouri in January was in 2013. On January 29, several low-level twisters ripped through the area near west-central Missouri’s Nevada to the St. Louis region. Terry says the storm was part of a larger system from Mississippi to Kentucky.
Prior to 2013, a system in mid-Missouri’s Pulaski and Phelps Counties spawned an outbreak of mostly low-level twisters and one EF-3 tornado during the early morning hours of January 8, 2008. Terry says the storm, which included the assessment of about 35 tornado touchdowns, injured three people that night.