A cold front brought heavy rains and a small tornado through Butler County last night, but the system passed with no reports of damage or injuries.
The tornado formed three miles northeast of Neelyville at approximately 5:30 p.m. It did not impact any structures, said storm spotter Craig Meador, but, “rolled through some farm fields, didn’t do any damage that we know of.”
One Neelyville resident captured video of its formation, which was sent to National Weather Service Paducah’s office for analysis. The lack of damage makes it difficult to rate the twister’s strength. Meador and Butler County EMA Director Robbie Myers tentatively estimated it to be an EF-0, the weakest category with winds under 85 miles per hour. A formal rating will depend on whether NWS receives any late reports of damage that necessitate an on-site inspection.
“If any damage does appear, then that might prompt us send someone, but if there’s no damage to see, we can’t do a whole lot...There’s not much point to us going out there,” said meteorologist Andrew Lesage.
Butler County received 2.11-2.5 inches of rain overnight, and dime-sized hail was reported in part of Poplar Bluff at 5:19 p.m. Wind gusted to between 37-40 miles per hour. There were no wind readings for the surrounding counties, but rain measurements came in at 2.5 inches in Ripley County, 1.07 inches in Carter County and 1.45 inches in Wayne County. Actual rainfall amounts varied by region. Stoddard had no measurements avaiable to NWS, but some areas may have gotten over 3 inches.
Southeast Missouri residents undoubtedly noticed the chilly temperatures as morning dawned, a vast difference from Sunday’s balmy 70 degrees. The cooling began around 4 p.m. yesterday with a drop of nine degrees in 15 minutes as the storm system reached Butler County. A second, slower decrease in temperature overnight took the region from the high 60s at 11 p.m. to 41 degrees at 5:15 a.m.
Temperature fluctuations often mark the edges of storm systems. The larger the difference in temperature, the more severe the storm is likely to be.
“Generally, these (temperature drops) involve wind shifts that occur with fronts, generally cold fronts for the more significant weather but sometimes warm fronts,” explained Lesage. “Usually...these boundaries end up becoming a focus point for instability and lift and that’ll help get a convection or storm started.”
Updated: The original article listed rainfall totals in Butler County at 2.36 inches.