Alert archive / Kansas / Tornado Watches in 2024

Tornado Watch 145

April 27, 202449 counties in Kansas; Pawnee County, Richardson County, Nebraska

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Apr 27, 2024, 11:51 AM CDT for 49 counties in Kansas; Pawnee County, Richardson County, Nebraska. It was in force for 8 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Apr 27, 2024, 11:51 AM CDT (16:51 UTC)
Expired: Apr 27, 2024, 7:46 PM CDT
In force: 8 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 65 kt

All 51 counties

Anderson County, KS, Barber County, KS, Barton County, KS, Brown County, KS, Butler County, KS, Chase County, KS, Chautauqua County, KS, Clay County, KS, Cloud County, KS, Coffey County, KS, Comanche County, KS, Cowley County, KS, Dickinson County, KS, Douglas County, KS, Edwards County, KS, Elk County, KS, Ellsworth County, KS, Franklin County, KS, Geary County, KS, Greenwood County, KS, Harper County, KS, Harvey County, KS, Jackson County, KS, Jefferson County, KS, Kingman County, KS, Kiowa County, KS, Lincoln County, KS, Lyon County, KS, Marion County, KS, Marshall County, KS, McPherson County, KS, Morris County, KS, Nemaha County, KS, Osage County, KS, Ottawa County, KS, Pawnee County, KS, Pottawatomie County, KS, Pratt County, KS, Reno County, KS, Rice County, KS, Riley County, KS, Russell County, KS, Saline County, KS, Sedgwick County, KS, Shawnee County, KS, Stafford County, KS, Sumner County, KS, Wabaunsee County, KS, Washington County, KS, Pawnee County, NE, Richardson County, NE

The radar

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 41 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 16:52 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 SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 70%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 60%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 60%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 80%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 80%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 95%

Warnings issued inside it

47 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 27, 12:37 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Clay, Geary, Pottawatomie, Riley	38 min
Apr 27, 12:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Butler, Cowley, Sumner	62 min
Apr 27, 12:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Butler	49 min
Apr 27, 12:59 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TOP	Clay, Riley	31 min
Apr 27, 1:23 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TOP	Pottawatomie, Riley	37 min
Apr 27, 1:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OAX	Nemaha, Richardson	37 min
Apr 27, 1:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Butler, Elk, Greenwood	43 min
Apr 27, 1:46 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TOP	Brown	29 min
Apr 27, 1:55 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TOP	Marshall, Pottawatomie	35 min
Apr 27, 1:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OAX	Richardson	37 min
Apr 27, 2:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	ICT	Sumner	57 min
Apr 27, 2:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Marshall, Riley, Washington	36 min
Apr 27, 2:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TOP	Jackson, Nemaha, Pottawatomie	46 min
Apr 27, 2:17 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OAX	Richardson	17 min
Apr 27, 2:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Lyon, Morris	37 min
Apr 27, 2:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Butler, Chase, Greenwood	66 min
Apr 27, 2:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Chase	30 min
Apr 27, 2:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Cowley	56 min
Apr 27, 2:55 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	ICT	Cowley	35 min
Apr 27, 2:55 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	TOP	Brown, Nemaha	49 min
Apr 27, 3:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Coffey, Lyon, Osage	45 min
Apr 27, 3:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TOP	Marshall, Nemaha	29 min
Apr 27, 3:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Harper, Sumner	40 min
Apr 27, 3:20 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Chautauqua, Cowley	40 min
Apr 27, 3:27 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk	48 min
Apr 27, 3:32 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	OAX	Richardson	110 min
Apr 27, 3:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Russell	24 min
Apr 27, 3:59 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Chautauqua, Cowley	31 min
Apr 27, 4:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Cowley	56 min
Apr 27, 4:07 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Cowley	18 min
Apr 27, 4:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Elk	61 min
Apr 27, 4:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Chautauqua, Cowley	45 min
Apr 27, 4:34 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Chautauqua, Cowley	21 min
Apr 27, 4:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Cowley	53 min
Apr 27, 4:54 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Elk	36 min
Apr 27, 4:57 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	ICT	Greenwood, Wilson, Woodson	48 min
Apr 27, 5:07 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Chautauqua, Elk	53 min
Apr 27, 5:10 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Elk	12 min
Apr 27, 5:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Chautauqua, Cowley	56 min
Apr 27, 5:28 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Chautauqua, Cowley	32 min
Apr 27, 5:52 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Considerable damage threat	ICT	Chautauqua	38 min
Apr 27, 6:13 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Chautauqua	32 min
Apr 27, 6:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Anderson	41 min
Apr 27, 6:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Anderson	16 min
Apr 27, 7:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Chautauqua, Elk	38 min
Apr 27, 7:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk	45 min
Apr 27, 7:44 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Cowley	16 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Topeka, KS (KTOP), launched 12:00Z, 4.9 hours before the alert went out and 91 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.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 1585 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -57 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 634 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 43 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 175 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 179 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.3
Supercell composite: 6.9

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 27, 10:57 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk, Montgomery, Sumner, Wilson	93 min
Apr 27, 11:33 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atchison, Barton, Brown, Clay, Dickinson, Doniphan and 16 more	117 min
Apr 27, 1:15 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ellis, Finney, Gove, Graham, Greeley, Hamilton and 13 more	3 hr
Apr 27, 1:40 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Atchison, Doniphan, Leavenworth, Wyandotte	7 hr
Apr 27, 1:54 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allen, Bourbon, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cowley, Crawford and 7 more	96 min
Apr 27, 2:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Ellis, Finney, Gove, Graham, Greeley, Hamilton and 17 more	6 hr
Apr 27, 3:40 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Atchison, Brown, Doniphan, Douglas, Franklin and 8 more	95 min
Apr 27, 4:31 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Johnson and 6 more	59 min
Apr 27, 4:57 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Allen, Bourbon, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Crawford, Elk and 10 more	8 hr
Apr 26, 7:27 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Harrison, Worth	93 min
Apr 27, 5:17 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clark	58 min
Apr 27, 5:58 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Clark, Knox, Lewis, Scotland, Shelby	6 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Kansas, 2024 Tornado Watches in Nebraska, 2024 Every tornado watch in 2024

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.