National Weather Service (2009-02-06). "What is SKYWARN?". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Retrieved 2009-12-13. Rising air within the updraft tilts the rotating air from horizontal to vertical, and most tornadoes form within this area of strong rotation.

Local National Weather Service operations were impacted during the outbreak, forcing two offices to briefly suspend operations. The power outages caused by the storms resulted in the National Weather Service's Paducah office temporarily transferring warning responsibilities for its County Warning Area to the agency's Springfield, Missouri office, and NOAA Weather Radio stations operated by the Paducah office temporarily went off-the-air in parts of the state during the outbreak. [149] [204] Employees at the National Weather Service's St. Louis office, located in Weldon Spring, were forced to take shelter and temporarily suspend operations as an EF3 tornado passed just south of the facility around 7:45p.m. CST on December 10. [205]As the tornado enters the dissipating stage, its associated mesocyclone often weakens as well, as the rear flank downdraft cuts off the inflow powering it. Sometimes, in intense supercells, tornadoes can develop cyclically. As the first mesocyclone and associated tornado dissipate, the storm's inflow may be concentrated into a new area closer to the center of the storm and possibly feed a new mesocyclone. If a new mesocyclone develops, the cycle may start again, producing one or more new tornadoes. Occasionally, the old (occluded) mesocyclone and the new mesocyclone produce a tornado at the same time. [ citation needed] Doswell, Charles A. III (2001-10-01). "What is a tornado?". Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies . Retrieved 2008-05-28.

Main article: Tornado preparedness Damage from the Birmingham tornado of 2005. An unusually strong example of a tornado event in the United Kingdom, the Birmingham Tornado resulted in 19 injuries, mostly from falling trees. National Center for Atmospheric Research (2008). "Tornadoes". University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Archived from the original on 2010-04-23 . Retrieved 2009-11-20.

A weak tornado caused scattered light to moderate roof damage. Numerous tree limbs were snapped, and several trees and a power pole were downed. [58] McGrath, Kevin (1998-11-05). "Mesocyclone Climatology Project". University of Oklahoma. Archived from the original on 2010-07-09 . Retrieved 2009-11-19. Missouri Event Report: EF0 Tornado (Report). National Centers for Environmental Information. National Weather Service in St. Louis, Missouri. 2021 . Retrieved March 19, 2022. Bradford, Marlene (2001). Scanning the Skies: A History of Tornado Forecasting. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3302-3. Several trees were snapped, one of which fell on and destroyed half of a mobile home. Debris from that structure was scattered into a nearby field. [73]