Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2003

F0 tornado, Scott City, Kansas, May 4, 2003

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Scott County on May 4, 2003, touching down at 2:59 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
May 4, 2003
Touchdown
2:59 PM CDT (19:59 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Scott County
Touchdown point
38.630, -101.080
Lift-off point
38.630, -101.080
Record number
274

What the Weather Service recorded

Brief landspout was very weak.

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

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:12 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC

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 air that afternoon

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, (KDDC), 12:00Z

8.0 hours before the tornado, 141 km from the path. May 4, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2003-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -65710, lifted condensation level 2312 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2003-05-04The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -84 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-65710 J/kg
Surface CAPE
901 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2312 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-84 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
96 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

4.0 hours after it, 141 km from the path. May 5, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2003-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -89164, lifted condensation level 2627 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2003-05-05The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -48 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89164 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2627 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-48 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
108 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Garden_city (GCK), 84 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:54 UTC7833270° 16 kt23995.3
19:54 UTC7631250° 19 kt22994.9
20:54 UTC7933240° 20 kt23995.3
21:43 UTC75.235.6260° 17 kt26995.3VCTS
21:54 UTC7333300° 14 kt23996.3VCTS

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

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:59 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2003 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 4, 2003

80 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 42:15 AM CDTF0Howard, NE1.035$70,000
May 43:28 PM CDTF0Saunders, NE1.0150
May 43:35 PM CDTF1Saunders, NE1.3250$20,000
May 43:54 PM CDTF1Leavenworth, KS to MO3.050$1.9 million
May 43:55 PM CDTF2Leavenworth, KS6.02502$4.0 million
May 44:18 PM CDTF0Labette, KS0.555
May 44:18 PM CDTF4Kansas City tornado, KS21.0500230$48 million
May 44:28 PM CDTF0Cass, NE0.3100
May 44:30 PM CDTF0Todd, SD1.010
May 44:30 PM CDTF0Labette, KS0.555
May 44:35 PM CDTF4Franklin–Liberal tornado, KS33.0880430$20 million
May 44:37 PM CDTF0Neosho, KS4.0110$10,000
May 44:45 PM CDTF4Gladstone tornado, MO5.020013$31 million
May 44:59 PM CDTF2Clay, MO8.5300$60 million
May 45:06 PM CDTF1Miami, KS to MO9.0150
May 45:24 PM CDTF0Craig, OK3.0200
May 45:25 PM CDTF1Labette, KS12.02201$2.5 million
May 45:31 PM CDTF3Barton, MO86.0880547$53 million
May 45:40 PM CDTF0Labette, KS0.555
May 45:45 PM CDTF3Cherokee, KS to MO25.0880534$24 million
May 45:55 PM CDTF1Ottawa, OK5.0880$250,000
May 46:04 PM CDTF2Cass, MO22.0100$200,000
May 46:10 PM CDTF0Vernon, MO0.220
May 46:30 PM CDTF0Jasper, MO0.220
May 46:50 PM CDTF3Newton, MO49.0880748$48 million
May 46:52 PM CDTF0Van Buren, AR3.125
May 46:55 PM CDTF1Dade, MO0.225$10,000
May 46:58 PM CDTF0LeFlore, OK to AR18.830
May 46:58 PM CDTF1Johnson, MO10.075$30,000
May 47:15 PM CDTF1Mississippi, AR4.0250$10,000
May 47:34 PM CDTF2Faulkner, AR14.51001
May 47:35 PM CDTF0Pettis, MO0.550$10,000
May 47:36 PM CDTF3Camden, MO14.0400427$5.0 million
May 47:39 PM CDTF2Mississippi, AR15.0300$400,000
May 47:50 PM CDTF1Faulkner, AR1.875
May 47:50 PM CDTF0Dunklin, MO3.0200$10,000
May 47:50 PM CDTF0Pemiscot, MO6.0440$1,000
May 47:52 PM CDTF3Faulkner, AR34.95005
May 48:20 PM CDTF0Webster, MO0.220
May 48:30 PM CDTF0Miller, MO0.220
May 48:35 PM CDTF0Cedar, MO0.220
May 48:45 PM CDTF0Dyer, TN1.0100$10,000
May 48:53 PM CDTF2Scott, MO11.5130$70,000
May 48:55 PM CDTF0Polk, MO0.220
May 48:55 PM CDTF3Woodruff, AR43.03004$1.0 million
May 49:05 PM CDTF0Maries, MO0.220
May 49:10 PM CDTF1Jackson, AR1.830
May 49:13 PM CDTF0Dallas, MO0.220
May 49:20 PM CDTF1Dyer, TN2.0200$30,000
May 49:25 PM CDTF1Gibson, TN8.0100$100,000
May 49:30 PM CDTF0Camden, MO0.220
May 49:30 PM CDTF1Dyer, TN4.0150$200,000
May 49:35 PM CDTF2Weakley, TN4.0250$750,000
May 49:43 PM CDTF1Ballard, KY to IL3.9100
May 49:55 PM CDTF0Pulaski, MO0.220
May 410:00 PM CDTF1Mississippi, AR8.0200$30,000
May 410:09 PM CDTF1Pope, IL to KY2.250
May 410:10 PM CDTF1Livingston, IL to KY9.860$10,000
May 410:30 PM CDTF2Calloway, KY1.860$350,000
May 410:30 PM CDTF0Phelps, MO0.230

All 81 of them

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.