F0 tornado, Wheeler, Kansas, August 26, 2002

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

August 26, 2002

Touchdown

4:35 PM CDT (21:35 UTC)

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cheyenne County

Touchdown point

39.700, -101.720

Lift-off point

39.700, -101.720

Record number

267

During the early afternoon hours on Monday, August 26th, thunderstorms developed rapidlyalong a thunderstorm outflow boundary in Dundy and Hitchcock counties in SW Nebraska. Thestorms quickly intensified to severe levels, with the first report of large hail occurring at 140 pmMDT in SE Dundy County. During the next 30 minutes, reports of softball-size hail (4"diameter), 87 mph winds and a tornado were received. For the next six hours, a small cluster ofthunderstorms approximately two counties wide continued to produce violent weather acrosswestern Kansas as the storms moved south at speeds ranging from 5 mph on the eastern extent ofthe cluster, to 50 mph on the western extent.The western edge of the thunderstorms stretched to the Kansas-Colorado border, where thestrongest straight-line wind reports were received. A 91 mph wind gust was reported at the BirdCity airport in Cheyenne County, KS at 311 pm MDT, and a 96 mph gust from the north wasmeasured by the public 4 miles east of Kanorado in Sherman County, KS at 450 pm MDT. Otherwind reports over 70 mph were received from Kit Carson and Cheyenne counties in easternColorado, and also in Wallace county, KS.Further east, much slower storm movement resulted in flash flooding across Rawlins, Thomasand Logan counties in Kansas. The city of Colby closed roads for a few hours which were madetemporarily impassible due to high water and debris. Minor wind damage was also reported inColby. Both forks of Beaver Creek rose rapidly in Rawlins county Monday evening whererainfall over 6 inches fell in a several hour period. Flood warnings were issued Monday eveningand were continued through Tuesday with flooding reported in many areas of Atwood.Some highlights across the region include:Kanorado, Kansas (SW Sherman County): Significant and widespread tree damage occurredthroughout town. A grain dryer broke loose from a grain elevator and toppled into an electricpole, which cut power to the town for three hours. Portions of roofs were removed from anabandoned school, and from a downtown business. Several people reported seeing a brief tornadoto the north of town as the storm approached, however, the damage pattern throughout townindicated a straight-line wind event in Kanorado. Sharon Springs, Kansas (Wallace County): Significant damage occurred to 3 hangars at theairport, and approximately 10 power poles were blown down one-half mile north of the airport.All debris was blown to the southwest, with structural damage occurring on the east andnortheast sides of the buildings indicating an intense straight-line wind event. In town, numerouswindows were broken on the north sides of buildings, and mostly minor tree damage was noted. Baseball-size hail (2.75" diameter) was reported several miles east of Sharon Springs.Wallace, Kansas (Wallace County): Fifteen railroad cars were blown over. The cars wereempty, with a posted weight of 31 tons each. Nearby, two large grain bins were heavily damagedand pushed over to the south. Widespread tree and limb damage occurred in town, and numerouswindows were broken.

Brief touchdown. No known damage.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:21 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:42 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.

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:33 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 2002 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

9 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.