F0 tornado, Palco to Plainville, Kansas, April 10, 2001

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   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 mph

   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

F0

Date

April 10, 2001

Touchdown

11:45 PM CDT (04:45 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$100,000

County

Rooks County

Touchdown point

39.220, -99.300

Lift-off point

39.250, -99.270

Record number

656

Strong thunderstorms just north of a warm front moved into north-central Kansas. Despite the late hour of the day, cooler temperatures and foggy conditions, these thunderstorms began to rotate and produced several tornadoes across the area. The first tornado developed in southwest Rooks county near Palco and lifted just south of Webster Lake. One farmstead was hit with damage sustained to outbuildings, trees and farm equipment. The next twister entered Rooks county from Ellis county south of Plainville. This tornado hit a farmstead on the south side of Plainville and traveled northeast through the cemetery and then on to rural areas of eastern Rooks county. The farmstead sustained damage to outbuildings and trees. The home was spared from major damage. Another weak tornado started on the south side of Plainville and traveled up US highway 183 and then northeast to a modular home manufacturing plant. Several homes in production were damaged. Other homes along the path had roof or window damage. Three other tornadoes occurred in Osborne county. The first, on the west side of the county, damaged outbuildings and trees along its 9 mile path. A short lived tornado near the junction of US highway 24 and Kansas Highway 181 hit an abandoned gas station. Old tanks and concrete blocks were littered about for nearly a mile to the northeast. The last tornado in the county started southwest of Downs and traveled northeast. It hit one farmstead on the west side of Downs causing damage to various outbuildings and farm machinery. This twister continued northeast and entered extreme southeast Smith county and then into southwest Jewell county. Before lifting, the tornado hit the parsonage of the Dispatch church, causing roof and wall damage to the home. Other weak tornadoes were noted in Smith and Jewell counties with minor damage noted to power poles and trees. Some other reports indicated that some hail and strong winds accompanied these storms.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:38 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:30 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 00:45 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.

Hays_muni (HYS), 44 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

28 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.