Branson Tornado Path 3D Flyover Tour

I created this movie using information published by the National Weather Service in Springfield, MO about the February 29, 2012 Kimberling City - Branson - Kissee Mills Tornado.

The resulting kmz file produced by the National Weather Service was used to render a 3D flyover using Google Earth. All video clips were shot by me the afternoon following the tornado.

Background music is credited to: Longzijun, and it is used by permission with proper aforementioned credit.

According to the National Weather Service in Springfield, MO, this tornado traveled about 22 miles. It ranged in intensity of a high EF-1 to a low EF-2. It traveled at speeds of around 60 to 70 miles per hour completing the 22-mile journey in about 19 minutes.
The tornado appears to have organized over the waters of Table Rock Lake to the west of Kimberling City, MO. It then moved onshore near Joe Bald Road and then continued eastbound eventually striking the heart of Branson just a few minutes later.
The tornado was approximately 400 yards wide - or about 4 football fields!

Many injuries were reported. There were no fatalities. If this tornado hit during the busy tourist season in Branson, those statistics would probably be very different.

UPDATE NOTE: I'll be happy to provide a very high-quality mp4 file of this movie to anyone from the news media, government agency, educational facility, etc. Just contact me here via my YouTube account or at marsradio@gmail.com. The file is just under 2 GB in size. I can give you FTP access to it or send it on a DVD as an mp4 data file (not in true DVD format).

• Category

  Science & Technology

[RD M]

Thankfully, this happened in February, which is kind of the "off season" for Branson. If it had occurred later in the spring and Branson was full of tourists there probably would have been scores of tourists either injured or killed.

[marsradio]

Boy, you sure got that right!!! Even if it happened same date but in the middle of the day there would have been casualties.

[holly freeman]

i live in branson and i live in a hotel on 76 strip next to ride the ducks at 3:04 it went behind me lucky it didnt hit head on...i was outside on the balcony and saw where about it was up around andy williams all you could see was pitch black then lots of huge flashing green lights made my ears pop

[marsradio]

WOW! That must have been scary when your ears popped. That's when you knew you were close, I bet.

[marsradio]

Saw it. In the video, all of the rocks on the ground are in that parking lot. They blew off of the roof on Jubilee Foods.

[bringiton1963]

you should have seen Wal Mart front of it was trashed but it was open for business in 2 days !!

[hotrodkingforever]

Branson is lame.

[Lucas Carson]

I LOVE THE DUCKS WHOS BEEN TO THE COLLIDGE OF THE OZARKS ???????

[projectdarkgrey]

I went to branson and SDC in april, much of the damage appears to have been cleaned up... you could still see much damage to a few of the hotels and a few other buildings... I took a bunch of pics.. but they appeared to be cleaing up and repairing at an extremly quick rate.. you almost didnt really notice the damge.

[Dylan todd]

When I went to silver dollar city I drove through Branson it's was really sad to see a lot of buildings destroyed scary really

[KellyREauctionco]

How did you make this video? I know you used google earth, but what program didi you use to capture the screen? Very good btw.