2024 Slater, Missouri tornado

The 2024 Slater, Missouri tornado was a very violent, long-tracked and deadly EF5-rated multiple-vortex tornado that cut a path through central Missouri in the evening of Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Part of the 2024 Super Outbreak, the tornado touched down near the town of Aullville in Lafayette County at 7:33 PM CDT. Moving northeast at around 45 miles per hour, the tornado slowly gained strength, cutting through the towns of Alma, Blackburn, Mt. Leonard, and Gillam, as well as rural areas of Lafayette and Saline Counties. The tornado reached EF5 strength near Slater, where 12 of the 18 fatalities occurred, then gradually weakened as it continued through Saline County and into Howard County, finally dissipating to the south of Roanoke at 8:46 PM.

The tornado's path was 52.30 miles long and a maximum of 1,360 yards wide, and it remained on the ground for a total of 73 minutes. Damage in and near Slater was described as "particularly catastrophic" in official surveys, with peak wind speeds estimated at 260 miles per hour. The fatality to injury ratio in Slater was 40%; well above average for EF5 tornadoes. On the 2024 Annual Severe Weather Summary, the Central Regional Headquarters office in Kansas City stated that the Slater tornado was "possibly the most violent tornado in Missouri state history".

The Slater tornado was the first to be rated EF5 in Missouri since the May 22, 2011 Joplin tornado, as well as the longest-tracked tornado in the state since the Perryville tornado on February 28, 2017, which left a 53.45 mile path. Despite the intensity of the devastation, the Slater tornado received relatively little media coverage following the Super Outbreak in the weak of deadlier tornadoes which struck Marshall, Minnesota, Liberal, Kansas, Woodward, Oklahoma, and Canadian County, Oklahoma.