Alert archive / Kansas / Tornado Warnings in 2002
Tornado Warning 63, NWS Wichita, KS
NWS Wichita, KS issued this tornado warning at Aug 12, 2002, 9:31 PM CDT for Reno County, Kansas. It was in force for 59 min. 3 reports came from inside the area while it was in force.
The area
The outline as issued, with what was reported inside it.
The facts
- Issued
- Aug 12, 2002, 9:31 PM CDT (02:31 UTC)
- Expired
- Aug 12, 2002, 10:30 PM CDT
- In force
- 59 min
- Issued by
- NWS Wichita, KS
- Area
- Counties, with a storm outline in the text
County Reno County, KS
The radar
The Wichita radar (KICT), 60 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:35 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.
Open the radar archive at this moment
The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.
What was reported inside it
| Time | Report | Where | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 12, 10:00 PM CDT | Thunderstorm Wind 65 E | Hutchinson, KS | Occurred at intersection of Highway 50/K-96. Nearby, 26 empty Union Pacific freight cars, of which 24 were covered hoppers and two were auto-carriers, were blown off a siding. Two mobile homes were destroyed. Three single-family homes (of which one was unroofe |
| Aug 12, 10:35 PM CDT | Thunderstorm Wind 61 E | Hutchinson, KS | Occurred at intersection of Highway 50 & Yoder Rd. |
| Aug 12, 10:36 PM CDT | Thunderstorm Wind 70 E | Yoder, KS |
NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.
The watch it was issued in
The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.
| Issued | Product | Office | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 12, 3:30 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 7 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Lamont, OK (KLMN), launched 00:00Z, 2.5 hours before the alert went out and 165 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 3086 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -22 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1535 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 50 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 167 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.9
- Supercell composite
- 13.3
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
159 WFUS53 KICT 130231 TORICT KSC155-130330- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS 931 PM CDT MON AUG 12 2002 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WICHITA HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... RENO COUNTY IN KANSAS * UNTIL 1030 PM CDT * AT 931 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH STRONG ROTATION 11 MILES NORTHWEST OF HUTCHINSON...OR OVER NICKERSON...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 10 MPH. THIS STORM COULD PRODUCE A TORNADO AT ANY TIME. * THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR HUTCHINSON AROUND 1015 PM CDT... NEAR SOUTH HUTCHINSON AROUND 1020 PM CDT... THIS REPLACES THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING PREVIOUSLY ISSUED FOR THE WARNED AREA. THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. MOVE INTO YOUR TORNADO SHELTER NOW REPEATING...A TORNADO WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR RENO COUNTY UNTIL 1030 PM CDT. LAT...LON 3816 9773 3816 9824 3792 9804 3793 9770 /COX NNNN
The office that day
Everything else NWS Wichita, KS issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 12, 7:13 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Ellsworth | 62 min |
| Aug 12, 7:31 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Rice | 59 min |
| Aug 12, 8:22 PM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | ICT | Rice | 6 hr |
| Aug 12, 8:26 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Rice | 64 min |
| Aug 12, 8:48 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ICT | Rice | 27 min |
| Aug 12, 9:05 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Reno | 55 min |
| Aug 12, 9:10 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ICT | Rice | 35 min |
| Aug 12, 9:26 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | McPherson | 64 min |
| Aug 12, 10:14 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Kingman | 61 min |
| Aug 12, 10:21 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Harvey, Sedgwick | 84 min |
| Aug 12, 10:27 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Reno | 33 min |
| Aug 12, 10:53 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Sumner | 67 min |
| Aug 12, 11:07 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Butler | 83 min |
| Aug 12, 11:46 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Reno | 59 min |
| Aug 12, 11:49 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Ellsworth | 56 min |
| Aug 13, 12:00 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Sumner | 30 min |
| Aug 13, 12:06 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Cowley | 84 min |
| Aug 13, 12:50 AM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | ICT | Ellsworth, Rice | 6 hr |
| Aug 13, 1:48 AM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | ICT | Reno | 6 hr |
| Aug 13, 6:54 AM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | ICT | Rice | 5 hr |
| Aug 13, 7:56 AM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | ICT | Reno | 6 hr |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Kansas, 2002Every tornado warning in 2002Tornadoes in 2002
Sources
The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.