Tornado and Hail in Kansas, April 20, 2001

Name: Tornado and Hail in Kansas, April 20, 2001
Start: 2001-04-20T17:45
End: 2001-04-20T19:15
Location: Kansas

April 20, 2001 · NWS GID · 7 events in 5 counties and zones

Thunderstorms rolled across north-central Kansas and caused wind damage. A brief tornado was reported southeast of Phillipsburg.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $185,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 7

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS GID wrote it up.

Thunderstorms rolled across north-central Kansas and caused wind damage. A brief tornado was reported southeast of Phillipsburg. The tornado was only on the ground for about a mile, but managed to destroy several outbuildings. Damage was estimated to be $125,000. Sporadic damage to houses, outbuildings, and trees were reported throughout north-central Kansas. Several structures in the town of Jewell sustained minor damage.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Hastings, NE wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 20, 12:55 PM CST, 4 hours 50 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 20, 12:55 PM CST, 4 hours 50 minutes before

SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA/NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
155 PM CDT FRI APR 20 2001

...IMMEDIATE THUNDERSTORMS CHCS AND THEN PRECIP FOR SUNDAY CONCERN
THIS TIME AROUND...

DONT PLAN ON MAKING THIS OVERLY LONG IN CASE TSTMS POP UP IN NEAR
FUTURE. WEST/EAST SFC BOUNDARY IN OUR KANSAS CWA HAS MOVED ONLY A
LITTLE NORTH THE PAST SIX HOURS. BEST SFC MOISTURE STILL OFF TO THE
EAST AND SE BUT TRYING ITS BEST TO ADVECT WESTWARD. 850 MOISTURE
WAS ALSO WELL EAST AT 12Z BUT FBY AND RWD PROFILERS HAVE BEEN RUNNING
EAST ALL MORNING SO MODELS LOOK ON TRACK TO BRING SOME OF THAT
MOISTURE IN AS WELL. POTENT SHORTWAVE SEEN ON UPPER AIR ANALYSIS AND
SATELLITE IMAGERY APPROACHING FROM EASTERN COLORADO.  ALSO HAS 70 KT
JET AT 500 MB AT 12Z OVER AZ/WRN NM WHICH WAS MOVING INTO THE
WESTERN PART OF THE PROFILER NETWORK.  OTHER NOTES...TEMPS IN THE
80S...WITH 60S FOR DEWPTS...SOUTH OF BNDRY WHILE COOLER 70S NORTH.
FCST SOUNDINGS OVER GRI FOR 0Z FROM MESOETA HAD PROJECTED CAPES OF
NEAR 3000 J/KG WITH SRH OF OVER 300 M2/S2...AND LCL OF 1800 FT. WILL
HAVE TO KEEP CLOSE WATCH ON SFC WINDS AND BOUNDARY ONCE CONVECTION
STARTS.

FAST MOVING SYSTEM SHOULD CLR MOST OF CWA BY MIDNIGHT. ATTENTION
THEN TURNS TO SUNDAY. MODELS DIFFER ON SPEED OF UPPER LOW BUT ALL
AGREE ON PRECIP GENERATION. ETA IS QUICKER AND MORE ROBUST WITH
QPF. BIGGEST DILEMMA IS PRECIP TYPE. ETA BRINGS 850 TEMPS DOWN TO
ZERO BY SAT EVENG AND KEEPS THEM -2 TO -4C ON SUN IN OUR NWESTERN
CWA. AVN RUNNING ABOUT 10 DEGREES WARMER THAN THAT. THINK ETA IS
TOO AGGRESSIVE WITH SYSTEM AND COLD AIR WHILE AVN LACKING. WILL
DECIDE ABOUT SNOW MENTION IN WEST AFTER COORD WITH LBF.  TEMPS WILL
ALSO HAVE TO BE ADJUSTED FOR SUNDAY.

WILL TAKE QUICK LOOK AT EXTENDED BUT MAIN CHANGE WILL PROBABLY BE TO
REMOVE RAIN CHCS FOR TUES AS LATEST AVN KEEPS UPPER LOW PROGRESSIVE.

.GID...NONE

EWALD

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Apr 20, 3:29 PM CST, 2 hours 16 minutes before

KSZ005>007-017>019-NEZ039>041-046>049-060>064-072>077-082>087-210200-

SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK - SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA/NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
429 PM CDT FRI APR 20 2001

...SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL LIKELY BE NECESSARY THIS EVENING...

A STRONG LOW PRESSURE AREA WILL CONTINUE TO ADVANCE THROUGH EASTERN
COLORADO AND WESTERN KANSAS THIS EVENING...ALL WHILE A WARM FRONT
LIFTS NORTHWARD FROM INTERSTATE 80 IN SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA.
AS THIS SYSTEM APPROACHES...THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP
ACROSS THE WESTERN SECTIONS OF NEBRASKA AND KANSAS EARLY THIS
EVENING. THESE STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO INITIALLY SPREAD INTO AREAS TO
THE WEST OF HIGHWAY 183 BETWEEN 6 PM AND 8 PM...AND THEN CONTINUE
HEADING EASTWARD THROUGH THE REST OF SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA AND NORTH
CENTRAL KANSAS DURING THE EVENING. DAYTIME HEATING AND AMPLE LOW
LEVEL MOISTURE HAS SET UP A MODERATELY UNSTABLE AIRMASS ACROSS SOUTH
CENTRAL NEBRASKA AND NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS...SETTING THE STAGE FOR
THUNDERSTORMS TO BECOME SEVERE ACROSS THE AREA.

THE BULK OF THIS ACTIVITY IS EXPECTED TO OCCUR IN SOUTH CENTRAL
NEBRASKA AND NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS BETWEEN 7 PM AND 2 AM. THE MAIN
THREAT WITH THESE STORMS WILL BE LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS...
ALTHOUGH AN ISOLATED TORNADO CANNOT BE RULED OUT.

AREA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICIALS AND SPOTTER GROUPS SHOULD PAY
CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS DEVELOPING SITUATION...WITH SPOTTER
ACTIVATION A GOOD POSSIBILITY THIS EVENING.

GUYER

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

3 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Rooks

When: April 20, 5:45 PM CST
Where: Rooks County, Palco
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 39.250, -99.567

Hail, Rooks

When: April 20, 5:45 PM CST
Where: Rooks County, Damar
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 39.317, -99.583

Thunderstorm Wind, Rooks

When: April 20, 6:05 PM CST
Where: Rooks County, Plainville
Measured: 62 kt (71 mph)
Property damage: $10,000
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 39.233, -99.300

Tornado, Phillips

When: April 20, 6:10 PM CST to 6:13 PM CST
Where: Phillips County, 4 mi SE of Phillipsburg
Rating: F0
Path length: 1 mi
Path width: 100 yd
Property damage: $125,000
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 39.717, -99.267

Hail, Smith

When: April 20, 6:30 PM CST
Where: Smith County, 8 mi N of Smith Center
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 39.900, -98.783

Thunderstorm Wind, Mitchell

When: April 20, 7:00 PM CST
Where: Mitchell County, Cawker City
Measured: 52 kt (60 mph)
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 39.517, -98.433

Thunderstorm Wind, Jewell

When: April 20, 7:15 PM CST
Where: Jewell County, Jewell
Measured: 62 kt (71 mph)
Property damage: $50,000
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 39.667, -98.150

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Thunderstorm Wind: Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.
Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Kansas in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Kansas, 2001 Warnings in Kansas, April 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5242479, 5242480, 5242481, 5242482, 5242483, 5242484, 5242485.