The Cassville area received its first true taste of tornado season in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Just after midnight, storms that had been spinning off tornadoes in Oklahoma approached Missouri, leading to a tornado warning in McDonald County, and ultimately, the same for Barry.
Having put both our girls to bed, I was staying up watching the radar and updating our Facebook page with relevant information when watches and warnings were issued.
As the line approached, I was wary of the way it was shaped, but did not expect it to be a major concern.
Then, there I was at 12:15 in the morning, waking up our toddler going through a weeks-long sleep regression and comforting our 8-year-old through her warranted anxiety of an overnight storm.
There’s no shortage of places to get weather information these days. Through apps, social media and television news coverage, it’s fairly simple to keep up with what’s going on, and the technology has greatly improved from the days I was my daughters’ age — much more precise and predictable.
However, radar can only do so much, and here in Barry County, the Office of Emergency Management has a cavalry ready to deploy when severe weather comes through.
David Compton, director of that Office, said as storms were entering McDonald County, the flurry of activity began in Barry.
Trained spotters were first activated in Cassville, Wheaton, Exeter, purdy, Monett Rural, Seligman and Washburn. The vast majority of the spotters being volunteer firefighters, they take out their heavy apparatus and set up south of where they believe the storm will push through.
“If it’s moving left to right, I keep watching, and if it’s getting bigger, that means it’s coming toward me and I need to move,” Compton said.
In this case, spotters in Seligman reported a wall cloud from the Seligman to Cassville area, which was also consistent with radar readings. Wall clouds are the lowering of a storm front and often carry tornadoes and heavy wind behind them.
In addition to wall clouds, spotters also look for wedges in the sky, which can indicate tornadic activity, as well as bright flashes — not necessarily lightning.
One indicator of heavy winds and possible tornadoes on the ground are bright flashes on the horizon, which can indicate power poles being downed and transformers exploding.
Compton said it takes 80-mile per hour winds to produce such damage, and that wind speed constitutes an F1 tornado.
To be able to see these indicators in real time, spotters typically set up on high ground or in open areas where the horizon is visible. Fixed-site spotters may also be called on, as they may already be in position, like at a residence on a hill, and have shelter available.
Once the wall cloud was spotted, Compton said the sirens were sounded.
“We had opposing winds, some rotation and the wall cloud,” he said. “We don’t wait for formal warnings to sound the sirens. If we have trained spotters that say they see something and it’s consistent with radar, we sound them. And, you should stay in shelter for as long as the sirens are sounding.”
For those in need of shelter during severe weather, Cassville has two storm shelters, both on the Cassville school district campus. The FEMA Event Center across from Wildcat Stadium and the FEMA building at Cassville High School both unlock automatically when storm sirens are activated.
Purdy also has a FEMA shelter at the school district that doubles as a performing arts center, and the Wheaton school district has a newly opened FEMA structure on its campus. Both of those also unlock when the sirens sound.
Monett has four total shelters. Monett elementary, middle and high schools each have a storm shelter, the latter also doubling as a performing arts center, and there is also a city-owned shelter at 603 County Road (Marshall Hill).
Unfortunately, the southern end of the county is without a FEMA-approved structure, which is frightening considering how many major storms tend to hit the Seligman-Eagle Rock-Shell Knob areas.
Shelters in any of those towns would be a great benefit to residents there if funding could be determined. Perhaps that could be a future goal for the Southwest and Shell Knob No. 78 school boards.
Fortunately, Tuesday morning’s storm dissipated with no major damage. Some street flooding in Monett and Purdy, low water-crossing flooding, some possible bridge damage in Exeter and trees downed on Highway Z was the only damage reported.
Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods. Today (Wednesday), morning storms may become severe but will give way to sunshine through the day. That heating of the atmosphere, Compton said, may spell trouble in the evening, with Barry County in an area that has a 10-15% chance of an F2 tornado.
That’s the report as of our press deadline at 2 p.m. Tuesday, but as Compton said, no one will know until the time comes.
“We’re 24 hours away, and in southwest Missouri, by tomorrow morning it could snow,” he said.
Kyle Troutman has served as the editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and became Publisher in 2023. He was named William E. James/Missouri Outstanding Young Journalist for daily newspapers in 2017, and he won a Golden Dozen Award from ISWINE in 2022. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or ktroutman@cassville- democrat.com.
