Tornado, Reno
- When
- May 11, 5:25 PM CST to 5:26 PM CST
- Where
- Reno County, 1 mi S of Sylvia
- Rating
- F0
- Path length
- 0.5 mi
- Path width
- 110 yd
- Reported by
- FIRE DEPT/RESCUE SQUAD
- Coordinates
- 37.950, -98.417
Breif touchdown in open country.
Tornado in Kansas, May 11, 2002
1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
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
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
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 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 Wichita, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 11, 4:44 PM CST, 41 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, May 11, 4:44 PM CST, 41 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS 544 PM CDT SAT MAY 11 2002 MESOSCALE UPDATE... LTST PROFILES SHOW LLVL WNDS CONTINUING TO VEER E OF I-135. THE STORMS HAVE DECREASED...MOST LKLY IN RESPONSE TO THIS AND SLGTLY COOLER SFC TEMPS. HOWEVER OVER THE LAST 3 HRS...LLVL WND PROFILE HAS SGFNTLY BACK AT HAVILNALD...WITH CORRESPONDING INCRS IN TSTMS TO THE W. BELIEVE AREA ALG S OF GBD-MCP LINE AND WEST OF HWY 14...HAVE GRTST POTNL FOR SVR TSTMS...WITH HIEST CAPES...AND WARMEST SFC TEMPS. IN ADDITION KICT 88D REFLECTIVITY SHOWS ORIENTATION OF HORIZONTAL CONVECTIVE ROLLS BACKING AHD OF STG STMS JUST W OF FCST AREAS. IN ADDITION 12Z ETA SUG INCRG UPR DIFFLUENCE ACRS THE ARE BTWN 00-03Z. .ICT... KS...FLOOD WATCH TONIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING FOR ERN PART OF CNTRL KS...THE FLINT HILLS...AND SERN KS ZONES KSZ049...KSZ051>053...KSZ069>072...KSZ093>096...KSZ098>100.
The radar
The Wichita radar (KICT), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:23 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- 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
- Flash Flooding and Hail in Missouri, May 11 to 12, 2002
- Tornadoes and Flash Flood in Kansas, May 11 to 12, 2002
- High Wind in Iowa, May 11, 2002
- Flash Flooding and Flooding in Illinois, May 11 to 13, 2002
- Tornadoes and Hail in Kansas, May 11, 2002
- Flooding in Iowa, May 11 to 14, 2002
- Flooding in Missouri, May 11 to 17, 2002
- Damaging Winds in Alabama, May 11, 2002
- Hail and Damaging Wind in Alabama, May 11, 2002
- Damaging Winds in Oklahoma, May 11, 2002
- Flash Flooding and Flood in Illinois, May 11 to 12, 2002
- High Surf in Hawaii, May 11 to 13, 2002
More
Every storm in Kansas in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Kansas, 2002Warnings in Kansas, May 2002
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: 5288835.