January 7-8, 2008 Tornado Outbreak
An unusually early severe weather outbreak hit the Missouri Ozarks Monday afternoon, January 7th, into the early morning hours Tuesday, January 8th, 2008. Numerous supercell thunderstorms spawned at least 33 tornadoes that resulted in significant damage to homes , trees and power lines. The supercell thunderstorms were followed by a violent squall line that produced damaging straight line winds in excess of 70 mph. In addition, the storms produced torrential rainfall and flash flooding. The storms developed as an intense storm system tracked out of the Rockies and interacted with an unseasonably warm, moist and unstable airmass across the Ozarks. Take a look at the Severe Event Summary from the Storm Prediction Center for a meteorological overview of the event.
National Weather Service Springfield, Missouri issued 33 severe thunderstorm warnings and 62 tornado warnings in approximately a 12 hour period. A total of 161 severe weather reports were received from mid afternoon on January 7th through the early morning hours on January 8th.
National Weather Service Springfield would like to thank emergency management, law enforcement , weather spotters and amateur radio operators, volunteer and cooperative observers, and radio and TV media for all of their reports and cooperation during this major severe weather event. Thank you for serving our community!
Tornado Tracks
Click on the links below for more details on specific tracks.
Click here for description of the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
Severe Weather Report
Map of Preliminary Storm Reports
For another look at preliminary storm reports click here.
Preliminary Text Local Storm Reports
Map of total Rainfall amounts across the area from Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning
