4 thunderstorm wind, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
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 Dodge City, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 26, 1:41 PM CST, 1 hour 29 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DODGE CITY KS 241 PM CDT TUE AUG 26 2003 DAYS 1-2... FORECAST CHALLENGES ARE CHANCES FOR THUNDER TONIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY WITH SURFACE TROUGH. UPPER AIR ANAL SHOWS LOTS OF LAYER MOISTURE IN PLACE WITH FORECAST PRECIPITABLE WATER OVER 1.50 INCHES. WEAK UPPER VORT HAS PUSHED SURFACE CONVERGENT LINE TO NEAR GARDEN CITY AND HAYS, AND THIS WEAK BOUNDARY COUPLED WITH FORECAST VERTICAL MOTION FIELD, AND WEAK CAP SHOULD GIVE MUCH OF THE AREA FROM AT LEAST GARDEN CITY AND EAST A CHANCE OF THUNDER. NOT MUCH VERTICAL SHEAR SO THUNDERSTORMS SHOULD NOT BE WELL ORGANIZED. SOME LOCALIZED AREAS MAY RECEIVE BRIEF HEAVY RAINFALL. WILL CARRY A 40 POP EXCEPT FOR A 30 IN FAR WEST. TROUGH LINE ERODES ON WEDNESDAY, AND WITH WEAK CAP, AND ANY LEFT OVER BOUNDARIES, MORE SCATTERED THUNDER MAY FORM. WILL LEAVE IN A SLIGHT CHANCE FOR THUNDER. ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT INTO THURSDAY WITH WEAK UPPER VORTS AND WEAK CAP, AND MID LEVEL MOISTURE WILL CONTINUE SMALL POPS. TEMPS NEAR 100 LOOKS REASONABLE ON THURSDAY USING ETA SOUNDING. ONLY FLY IN OINTMENT FOR REACHING THE CENTURY MARK IS HOW MUCH CLOUD WILL HOLD TEMPS DOWN. DAYS 3-7... MAJOR CHANGES TO SENSIBLE WEATHER ACROSS WESTERN KANSAS STILL ON TRACK BEGINNING THURSDAY NIGHT. THE MAJOR CHALLENGE CONTINUES TO BE JUST HOW WIDESPREAD THE CONVECTION WILL BE ON THE INITIAL FRONT THURSDAY NIGHT. THE GFS, ETA, AND UKMET ARE IN AGREEMENT ON TIMING...AND THAT STORMS SHOULD INITIATE ON THE FRONT NEAR THE I-70 CORRIDOR LATE AFTERNOON. STRONG COLD ADVECTION AT 500MB, COMBINED WITH PRONOUNCED ENTRANCE REGION DIVERGENCE AT 250MB OVER KANSAS, WILL PROVIDE THE NECESSARY LARGE SCALE INSTABILILTY AND UPWARD MOTION TO SUSTAIN A SIGNIFICANT MCS. PROGGED 850MB DEWPOINTS OF 14 TO 16C WILL AID IN THE HEAVY RAINFALL THREAT, ESPECIALLY OVER THE SOUTHEAST ZONES, WHERE WIDESPREAD 1 TO 2 RAINFALL IS POSSIBLE THROUGH EARLY FRIDAY MORNING. AT THIS TIME, WILL HOLD BACK ON DECLARING A LOCAL OFFICE CRITERIA EXTREME EVENT FOR HEAVY RAINFALL, WHICH IS 60% OF CWA > 1 RAIN...AS THE BEST PROBABILITY FOR 1 WILL BE IN THE SOUTHEAST ONE HALF. HOWEVER, APPRECIABLE WIDESPREAD RAINFALL IS ANTICIPATED OVER MUCH OF SOUTHWEST KANSAS, WHICH HAS NOT BEEN SEEN SINCE AROUND JUNE 18. HIGH TEMPERATURES BEHIND THIS CONVECTIVE SYSTEM FRIDAY WILL STRUGGLE TO GET OUT OF THE MID 80S. ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT S/WV IS PROGGED TO CROSS THE ROCKIES LATE FRIDAY, WHICH WILL TEND TO LOWER PRESSURES IN EASTERN COLORADO. THERE WILL BE A BATTLE BETWEEN THE REMNANT COLD OUTFLOW FROM THE THURSDAY NIGHT MCS (MESO HIGH PRESSURE) AND THE PRESSURE FALLS JUST TO THE WEST OF THE FORECAST AREA. SIGNIFICANT BAROCLINICITY WILL BE IN PLACE FROM THE FIRST FRONT AND THE REMNANT COLD AIR FROM THE MCS OUTFLOW. THE TRUE ARCTIC FRONT, WITH PRONOUNCED BAROCLINICITY, WILL BE MARCHING SOUTHWARD LATE FRIDAY. A RENEWED ROUND OF STORMS IN THE FORM OF ANOTHER WELL ORGANIZED COMPLEX CAN BE EXPECTED, EITHER ON THE LEADING EDGE OF THE ARCTIC FRONT/SFC CYCLOGENESIS AREA IN NORTHEAST COLORADO -OR- ON THE FIRST POLAR FRONT/REMNANT OUTFLOW BOUNDARY TO THE SOUTH -OR- BOTH. IT IS EASY TO SPECULATE THE EVOLUTION OF THIS LOOKING AT THE NUMERICAL MODEL SOLUTIONS, BUT CONVECTIVE FEEDBACK INTO THE SYNOPTIC/SUBSYNOPTIC SCALE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ANTICIPATE 5 DAYS OUT. FOR TEMPERATURES, HIGHS SATURDAY MAY NOT GET ABOVE 73 OR 74 OVER ALL OF SOUTHWEST KANSAS AS COLD AIR RUSHES SOUTH DOWN THE PLAINS ON THE BACKSIDE OF THE 120+KT 250 JET. A SLOW WARMUP IS THEN FORECAST FOR SUNDAY AND BEYOND, BUT AT THIS TIME, AM KEEPING THE GRIDS AT DAY 7 JUST BELOW THE AVERAGE HIGH. IF SFC HIGH PARKS OVER SOUTHWEST KANSAS EARLY NEXT WEEK, MANY LOCATIONS MAY SEE LOWS IN THE UPPER 40S. .PRELIMINARY GUIDANCE FOR COORDINATION ONLY. OFFICIAL FORECASTS ARE CONTAINED WITHIN THE DODGE CITY ZONE FORECAST. DDC 68 94 68 99 / 40 20 20 10 GCK 65 94 66 99 / 40 20 20 20 EHA 62 94 64 98 / 30 20 20 20 LBL 64 94 67 99 / 30 20 20 10 HYS 68 94 68 99 / 40 20 20 30 P28 70 98 71 101 / 40 20 20 20 .DDC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... KS...NONE. 06/25
KSZ030-031-043>046-061>066-074>081-084>090-270900- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DODGE CITY KS 409 AM CDT TUE AUG 26 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHWEST KANSAS. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY THE PROBABILITY OF HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME. JOHNSON
The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 134 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:11 UTC.
4 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A downburst blew down five to six inch diameter tree limbs. A camper was overturned and several stop signs were blown down.
A power pole was blown down.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kansas in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Kansas, August 2003
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: 5333524, 5333525, 5333526, 5333527.