F1 tornado, Courtland to Republic, Kansas, June 22, 2003

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 mphthis tornado

   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

F1

Date

June 22, 2003

Touchdown

8:30 PM CDT (01:30 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$120,000

County

Republic County

Touchdown point

39.830, -97.870

Lift-off point

39.880, -97.850

Record number

1222

Thunderstorms developed over Republic county the evening of the 22nd and persisted into the early morning hours of the 23rd. Numerous reports of large hail and damaging winds along with several tornadoes (discussed separately) were the result. The persistance of the thunderstorms in the same location led to flash flooding in Republic County as well as the Republican River to flood and do considerable crop damage.

A tornado touched down in rural areas near Courtland and moved northeast about one half mile and struck a farm before dissipating. Several outbuildings at the farm were damaged.

A second tornado touched down northeast of Courtland, moved northeast for a mile and damaged some power poles and power lines before dissipating.

The third in a series of tornadoes touched down northeast of Courtland and traveled 3 miles and damaged 2 homes before dissipating.

A fourth tornado touched down near Republic and moved northeast for 2 miles and damaged a home before dissipating.

A tornado struck 3 miles northeast of Republic and moved northeast 4 miles and destroyed a house in its path before it dissipated near the Nebraska border.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:07 UTC, 23 minutes 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, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:25 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 Grand Island radar (KUEX), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:28 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 2003 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

14 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.