Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2007

EF0 tornado, Nickerson, Kansas, April 24, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Reno County on April 24, 2007, touching down at 7:09 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

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

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
April 24, 2007
Touchdown
7:09 PM CDT (00:09 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Reno County
Touchdown point
38.089, -98.158
Lift-off point
38.089, -98.158
Record number
0704241809-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A potent upper level disturbance and associated dryline sparked scattered strong to severe thunderstorms across the area on the afternoon of March 24th. The first round of thunderstorms pummelled far southeast Kansas with damaging winds and marginally severe hail. The second round of thunderstorms developed across portions of central and south-central Kansas. One lone supercell produced several short-lived tornadoes and funnel clouds across portions of Reno and Rice Counties.

Brief touchdown in open country.

Multiple very brief touchdowns in open country.

Brief touchdown in open country. Reported by KWCH-TV.

Brief touchdown in open country. Reported by KWCH-TV.

Off duty NWS employee reported a few brief touchdowns in open country.

Brief touchdown in open country. Reported by KWCH-TV.

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

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Wichita, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Apr 24, 7:09 PM CDT, 0 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 24, 7:09 PM CDT, 0 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Apr 24, 4:00 PM CDT, 3 hours 9 minutes before
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
400 PM CDT TUE APR 24 2007

KSZ032-033-047>053-067>072-082-083-091>096-098>100-252200-
RUSSELL-LINCOLN-BARTON-ELLSWORTH-SALINE-RICE-MCPHERSON-MARION-CHASE-
RENO-HARVEY-BUTLER-GREENWOOD-WOODSON-ALLEN-KINGMAN-SEDGWICK-HARPER-
SUMNER-COWLEY-ELK-WILSON-NEOSHO-CHAUTAUQUA-MONTGOMERY-LABETTE-
400 PM CDT TUE APR 24 2007

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL KANSAS...
SOUTH CENTRAL KANSAS AND SOUTHEAST KANSAS.

.DAY ONE...LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL LIKELY IMPACT PORTIONS OF
CENTRAL...SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS THIS EVENING. THE MAIN
THREATS WILL BE LARGE HAIL TO GOLF BALL SIZE OR LARGER...DAMAGING
WINDS...AND A FEW TORNADOES.

ONE CONCENTRATED AREA OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE ACROSS
SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. OTHER MORE
ISOLATED SUPERCELL TYPE STORMS MAY DEVELOP JUST EAST OF A DRYLINE
IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL KANSAS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND
EVENING. THE DRYLINE WILL EXTEND FROM NEAR HAYS TO MEDICINE LODGE
AND SHOULD REMAIN NEARLY STATIONARY INTO THIS EVENING. IT IS
ANTICIPATED THAT THE GREATER THREAT FOR TORNADOES WILL BE WITH
THESE STORMS JUST EAST OF THE DRYLINE.

THE SEVERE THREAT SHOULD DIMINISH LATER TONIGHT AS WIND SHEAR
WEAKENS IN THE ATMOSPHERE.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY

NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND EMBEDDED THUNDERSTORMS WILL PERSIST ACROSS THE
REGION WEDNESDAY. A FEW STORMS IN SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS COULD
CONTAIN SMALL HAIL.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

STORM SPOTTERS WILL LIKELY BE NEEDED ACROSS CENTRAL...SOUTH-CENTRAL
AND SOUTHEAST KANSAS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.

&&

FOR A GRAPHICAL VERSION OF THIS INFORMATION...SEE OUR
WEBPAGE AT (LOWERCASE) HTTP://WEATHER.GOV/WICHITA/HWO/HWO.PHP

EPS/ADK/JMC

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Apr 24, 5:57 PM CDT, 1 hour 12 minutes before
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Local storm report, Apr 24, 6:02 PM CDT, 1 hour 7 minutes before
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Local storm report, Apr 24, 6:21 PM CDT, 48 minutes before
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Special weather statement, Apr 24, 6:21 PM CDT, 48 minutes before
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Special weather statement, Apr 24, 6:37 PM CDT, 32 minutes before
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Local storm report, Apr 24, 7:03 PM CDT, 6 minutes before
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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), 00:00Z

0.2 hours before the tornado, 157 km from the path. April 25, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2007-04-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 13 joules per kilogram, CIN -66, lifted condensation level 2958 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2007-04-25The 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 3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
13 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66 J/kg
Surface CAPE
101 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2958 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
1 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hutchinson (HUT), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Wichita radar (KICT), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:08 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 2007 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 24, 2007

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 2411:58 AM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO0.510$25,000
April 2412:15 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO4.025
April 2412:38 PM MDTEF0Lincoln, CO2.050
April 2412:58 PM MDTEF0Lincoln, CO0.150
April 242:00 PM CDTEF1Hood, TX0.550$200,000
April 242:20 PM CDTEF0Denton, TX1.050$40,000
April 241:26 PM MDTEF1Cheyenne, CO4.525$1,000
April 241:37 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO4.025
April 241:48 PM MDTEF0Wallace, KS0.510
April 241:55 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO5.050
April 242:00 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO0.510
April 242:00 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO0.510
April 243:27 PM CDTEF0Osage, OK5.5100
April 246:20 PM CDTEF0Barton, MO2.825$5,000
April 247:01 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:01 PM CDTEF3Maverick, TX4.04007$80 million
April 247:12 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:14 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:16 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:19 PM CDTEF1Denton, TX2.550$100,000
April 247:29 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:43 PM CDTEF1Franklin, AR1.0100$125,000

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.