F3 tornado, Melrose to Carl Jct, Kansas, May 4, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

F3

Date

May 4, 2003

Touchdown

5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC)

Path length

25.0 miles (40.2 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

5

Injuries

34

Property damage

$24 million

Counties

Cherokee and Jasper counties

Touchdown point

37.080, -94.950

Lift-off point

37.200, -94.520

Record number

220

A classic supercell thunderstorm moved out of southern Labette County, Kansas and into southwest Cherokee County, Kansas. Intermittent, brief tornado touch downs were observed from storm spotters in rural sections of southeast Labette County, however, the storm eventually produced a long lived tornado that initially touched down north of Melrose. This feature then progressed through rural areas of central and east central Cherokee County. This large and destructive tornado is accountable for 19 injuries and three fatalities, before moving into Jasper County, Missouri. Julie Green age 50, was eating supper in her home a few miles southeast of Columbus when the tornado struck. She was thrown about one quarter of a mile southeast of the home in a field where she deceased.Charles Ross Jr. age 80 and Phyllis Ross age 73, lived in a frame home about five miles east of Crestline near the Kansas-Missouri state line. After deciding not to leave their home to seek shelter away from the path of the tornado, the tornado struck their location. The couple were deceased from flying debris.

This tornado is a continuation of the Cherokee County, Kansas tornado. This feature crossed the Kansas-Missouri state line near the community of Smithfield, and then wreaked havoc through the center of Carl Junction. Around 112 homes and outbuildings were destroyed while 487 were damaged. The tornado claimed the lives of two local residents and injuring 15.Kenneth and Ethel LaNear ages 71 and 62, were taking shelter in a closet of their frame home when the tornado struck. Both were deceased from being struck into the ground and hit by flying debris.

The deaths

5 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS SGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:20 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:20 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 High Risk, with a 0.25 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:19 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 Springfield radar (KSGF), 119 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:47 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

80 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 81 of them

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.