May 16th was advertised by SPC with a MODERATE RISK across the MS/OH river areas. It did not disappoint! Strong shear, high moisture and instability, and a slowly advancing front set the stage for what would be the most significant severe weather outbreak of the year so far. We started in Springfield, IL and blasted towards Sikeston, MO, which was my target.  Storms formed west along the front and moved east and intensified. We decided to push west a bit and meet them as they came out of the Ozarks (a nearly impossible area to chase in!).  As is often the case, we targeted the tail end storm, which typically gets the best feed of moisture, as it moved just north of Poplar Bluff. It had a great hook echo on radar and showed a strong velocity couplet. As it emerged onto the flat terrain, a truncated cone tornado formed and went on to be on the ground over 15 miles. It caused significant damage and was rated EF3. Another tornado formed just east of the first, a long slender elephant trunk shaped tornado, and ended up getting rated EF1. The supercell moved east across the Mississippi and Ohio rivers west of Paducah, and due to terrain and poor road networks, we couldn’t stay up with it.

More storms formed back west into southeast Missouri, so we pursued them. We caught up to them just west of Morley. An elephant trunk shaped funnel descended and touched down just west of town causing EF1 damage. Soon another EF1 tornado formed just to out northeast and eventually dissipated as it crossed the river. Numerous tornadoes occurred across this area during this event, causing extensive damage and unfortunately even loss of life. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to those who suffered, including a tornado that directly hit St Louis. Please take the time to donate to local charities to help those impacted by these tornadoes and supercell thunderstorms.