F0 tornado, Kinsley, Kansas, May 11, 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

May 11, 2002

Touchdown

4:44 PM CDT (21:44 UTC)

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Edwards County

Touchdown point

37.970, -99.420

Lift-off point

37.970, -99.420

Record number

699

This was a brief tornado (not a gustnado).

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:24 UTC, 20 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:07 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 May 11, 3:28 PM CDT, 1 hour 16 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DODGE CITY KS
328 PM CDT SAT MAY 11 2002

DAYS 1-2...

THIS AFTERNOONS WATER VAPOR LOOP SHOWS A JET MAX MIGRATING
NORTHEAST OVER THE WESTERN HIGH PLAINS. AREA WIND PROFILERS ALSO
SUPPORT THIS AS WELL. COLD FRONT STARTING TO LIGHT UP PER RADAR AND
VIS SAT DATA. SFC OBS SHOW BEST LOW-LEVEL MOISTURE FROM THE EASTERN
TEXAS PANHANDLE TO THE FAR EASTERN CWA. AS THE REST OF THE AFTERNOON
PASSES AND COLD FRONT CONTINUES TO SLIDE SOUTH, THE CHANCE FOR
CONVECTION EXISTS. THE BEST CHANCES FOR WIDESPREAD CONVECTION WILL
BE OVER THE EASTERN CWA TONIGHT. WITH THIS IN MIND, WILL KEEP POP
GRADIENT GOING FROM PREVIOUS SHIFT.

FOR SUNDAY...MID/UPPER TROP VORT THATS OVER AZ THIS AFTERNOON WILL
MOVE EAST TONIGHT INTO SUNDAY. BEST MID-LEVEL LAPSE RATES WILL BE
JUST TO OUR SOUTH DURING THE DAY. HOWEVER, THERE WILL BE SOME
MID/UPPER MOISTURE AVAILABLE FOR SHOWERS. THEREFORE, WILL SHOTGUN A
CHANCE POP FOR ALL CWA. WITH CAA AND PLENTIFUL CLOUD OVERHEAD, HIGHS
WILL RANGE FROM THE LOWER 50S NORTH TO THE LOWER 60S FAR SOUTHEAST.

FOR MONDAY...WITH UPPER VORT TO OUR SOUTHEAST, CWA WILL BE UNDER
DOWNWARD MOTION. UPSHOT IS THAT SUNNY SKIES SHOULD PREVAIL. WILL
PLAN TO GO ABOVE CURRENT MAV NUMBERS FOR HIGHS. PCPN NIL THIS PERIOD.

DAYS 3-7...

THE CURRENT EXTENDED LOOKED ON TRACK...FROM WHAT I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO
STUDY. ANALYSIS WAS SHORTENED TODAY DUE TO SEVERE POTENTIAL. TODAY/S
RUN OF THE AVN AND YESTERDAY/S ECMWF ARE SIMILAR THROUGH ABOUT
15/12Z TIME FRAME, THEN THE AVN SPEEDS UP THE EASTWARD MOVEMENT OF
THE UPPER LOW OVER MONTANA, WHILE ECMWF DIGS AND MOVES THIS LOW
PRESSURE CENTER AT SLOWER PACE, AND THUS DIGS A LARGER SCALE TROUGH
THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN STATES. WITH THIS IN MIND, WILL KEEP A CHANCE
FOR THUNDERSTORMS IN THURSDAY AND FRIDAY PERIODS, BUT NOT IN NEWLY
INTRODUCED SATURDAY PERIOD. AHEAD OF APPROACHING UPPER SYSTEM, HIGH
TEMPS COULD GET PRETTY TOASTY WED AND THUR, AND CURRENT FORECAST
REFLECTS THIS.

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

DDC   44  52  38  74 /  70  30   0   0
GCK   45  57  41  77 /  50  30   0   0
EHA   44  55  40  80 /  30  30   0   0
LBL   45  57  41  77 /  50  30   0   0
HYS   44  52  38  74 /  70  30   0   0
P28   47  59  42  75 /  70  30   0   0

.DDC...NONE.

16/12

In the hours before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DODGE CITY, KS
136 PM CDT SAT MAY 11 2002

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0123 AM    16 ESE ULYSSES            KS   .75 INCH HAIL
05/11/02   GRANT                          REPORTED BY LAW
                                          ENFORCEMENT

0130 AM    16 N SUBLETTE             KS   1.00 INCH HAIL
05/11/02   HASKELL                        REPORTED BY PUBLIC

0140 AM    12 S GARDEN CITY          KS   .88 INCH HAIL
05/11/02   FINNEY                         REPORTED BY CO-OP
                                          OBSERVERS

TSB

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), 53 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), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:44 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

16 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.