F2 tornado, Erie to Hiattville, Kansas, April 19, 2000

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F2

Date

April 19, 2000

Touchdown

8:20 PM CDT (01:20 UTC)

Path length

25.0 miles (40.2 km)

Path width

280 yards (256 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

Property damage

$2.0 million

Counties

Neosho, Crawford and Bourbon counties

Touchdown point

37.500, -95.330

Lift-off point

37.700, -94.920

Record number

710

An F2 tornado entered western Crawford County about 3 miles south of Walnut and moved through the northwest portion of the county. The damage path was intermittent and about 200 yards wide. The tornado stayed mainly over rural areas and uprooted trees and damaged or destroyed 3 homes and several outbuildings. The tornado exited the county just east of Hepler and moved into southern Bourbon County.

An F2 tornado crossed the Bourbon and Crawford County line 4 miles southwest of Hiattville and lifted about 2 miles southwest of Hiattville. The path was intermittent and stayed over rural areas.

Forming at 1920 CST 6 miles southwest of Erie, the tornado moved northeast around 35 mph passing just south of Erie at 1931 CST. F2 intensity for much of it's track, the tornado injured 3 people on the southern periphery of Erie as it destroyed or heavily damaged 12 homes, several mobile homes, as well as a few trees. This tornado then crossed into Crawford county.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

1 minute of warning. NWS ICT issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:19 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:09 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Chanute (CNU), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 154 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:27 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.