F0 tornado, Jetmore, 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

9:05 PM CDT (02:05 UTC)

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hodgeman County

Touchdown point

37.900, -100.130

Lift-off point

37.900, -100.130

Record number

282

This brief tornado was filmed by the spotter, but it did not last long and did not hit anything.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:12 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.

NWS Dodge City, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Aug 26, 3:18 PM CDT, 5 hours 47 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DODGE CITY KS
318 PM CDT MON AUG 26 2002

DAYS 1-2...

SEVERAL FEATURES TO INFLUENCE THIS FORECAST PACKAGE.  FOR THE
IMMEDIATE FUTURE, OUTFLOW BOUNDARY SAGGING SOUTHWEST FROM EARLY
MORNING MCS IN CENTRAL NEBRASKA HAS PUSHED INTO THE FAR NORTHERN
CWA.  NEW TSRA DEVELOPMENT MAY FIRE SOUTH FROM SOUTHWEST NEBRASKA
ALONG THIS OUTFLOW BOUNDARY THROUGH EARLY EVENING.  ELSEWHERE,
ATMOSPHERE HAS BECOME INCREASINGLY UNSTABLE AS SFC TEMPS HAVE WARMED
WELL INTO THE 80S TO AROUND 90 AND SURFACE DEW POINTS HAVE REMAINED
IN THE 60S.  MORNING U/A ANALYSIS INDICATING AND WATER VAPOR IMAGERY
SHOWING SIGNIFICANT DIFLUENT FLOW ACROSS THE WESTERN HIGH PLAINS IN
THE MID/UPPER LEVELS WITH 90 KT SOUTHERN BRANCH JET NOSING INTO THE
CENTRAL ROCKIES.

THINK THAT 30KM MM5, 12Z RUN, HAD THE BEST SOLUTION IN FORMING
RATHER STOUT MCS IN NORTHEAST COLORADO, SOUTHWEST NEBRASKA AND
NORTHWEST KANSAS, AND DROPPING THIS FEATURE SOUTH/SOUTHEAST ALONG
THE MID LEVEL BAROCLINIC ZONE.  THUS, WILL BASE POPS HIGHLY ON THIS
SOLUTION WITH LIKELY NORTH AND NORTHWEST TO SLIGHT CHANCE SOUTHEAST
CWA.

ON TUESDAY THE ATMOSPHERE WILL LIKELY BE IN RECOVERY MODE FROM
OVERNIGHT CONVECTION WITH ANOTHER ROUND POSSIBLE TOMORROW NIGHT AS
ANOTHER S/WV TROUGH APPROACHES IN THE SOUTHERN BRANCH OF THE
WESTERLIES AND THE SURFACE BOUNDARY STRENGTHENS WITH DAYTIME HEATING.

DAYS 3-7...

MID TO LATTER PART OF THIS WEEK STILL LOOKING FAIRLY ACTIVE WITH THE
SOUTHERN BRANCH OF THE WESTERLIES CONTINUING FOR A FEW MORE DAYS.
CLOSED LOW FORECAST TO ESTABLISH ITSELF OVER THE NORTHERN ROCKIES ON
TUESDAY IS FORECAST TO OPEN UP AND LIFT OUT INTO THE NORTHERN PLAINS
BY FRIDAY AFTER WHICH AN UPPER LEVEL RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS
NORTHEAST INTO THE CENTRAL PLAINS.  UNTIL THAT TIME, THE LOW LEVEL
BAROCLINIC ZONE WILL LIKELY STAY IN PLACE WHERE IT HAS BEEN ACROSS
THE CENTRAL PLAINS.  WITH THIS IN MIND, WILL CONTINUE TO HOLD ON TO
THE LATE AFTERNOON AND NIGHTTIME THUNDERSTORM FORECAST.  THE WEATHER
SHOULD QUIET DOWN A BIT FOR THE PERIOD FROM SATURDAY THROUGH MOST OF
MONDAY AS THE UPPER LEVEL RIDGE DOMINATES THE WEATHER FOR A FEW
DAYS.  EARLY NEXT WEEK, THE MAIN BELT OF UPPER LEVEL WESTERLY FLOW
SAGS BACK DOWN ACROSS THE U.S./CANADIAN BORDER WITH A COUPLE OF
SHORTWAVE TROUGHS MOVING EAST ACROSS THE NORTHERN U.S. EARLY NEXT
WEEK.  THINK THAT THE NEXT CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS WOULD BE AROUND
MONDAY NIGHT ALONG A SURFACE BOUNDARY THAT SHOULD GET PUSHED SOUTH
INTO THE CENTRAL HIGH PLAINS.  WILL KEEP THE 8-10 DAY OUTLOOK THE
SAME WITH NEAR NORMAL ON BOTH THE TEMPS AND PRECIP.

PRELIMINARY GUIDANCE FOR COORDINATION ONLY. OFFICIAL FORECASTS ARE
CONTAINED WITHIN THE DODGE CITY ZONE FORECAST.

DDC   65  82  64  85 /  40  20  30  20
GCK   65  83  64  87 /  40  20  40  20
EHA   66  84  65  88 /  40  30  40  20
LBL   65  83  64  87 /  40  20  40  20
HYS   65  82  64  85 /  60  10  30  20
P28   67  82  66  86 /  20   0  20  20

.DDC...NONE.

FCSTID = 07/02

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.

Dodge City (DDC), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 21 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:07 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.