EF1 tornado, Ellinwood to Claflin, Kansas, May 5, 2007

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 5, 2007

Touchdown

1:28 AM CDT (06:28 UTC)

Lifted

1:50 AM CDT (06:50 UTC)

On the ground

22 minutes

Path length

6.2 miles (9.9 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$57,000

County

Barton County

Touchdown point

38.433, -98.530

Lift-off point

38.520, -98.502

Record number

0705050028-01

A powerful but slow moving storm system caused several severe thunderstorm outbreaks from very late in the day on May 4th through late in the day on May 6th. This storm system was responsible for 20 tornadoes, 17 tornadoes were reported in parts of Central Kansas while 3 additional weak tornadoes occurred in South Central Kansas on the 6th as well as numerous reports of severe hail and winds. In Barton County alone, 500 power poles including several large transmission lines were knocked down causing at least 4.5 million dollars in damage. Since several tornadoes occurred over nearly the same areas it is not clear how many poles were knocked down from each tornado.

Brief touchdown in open country.

Very short track tornado that caused some minor damage to power poles and trees.

The tornado damaged large trees at several locations along its path. Two barns were destroyed and several outbuildings were also severely damaged. Five 100,000 bushel grain bins were also destroyed with two of them flung onto the local Dillon's grocery store causing damage to that structure. Damage to a church steeple and out building also occurred at the beginning of the tornado path. Tornado was probably descending down directly onto the church.

The tornado caused significant damage to trees and power lines along its path and also caused minor structual damage to one residence.

The tornado crossed into Rice 4.8 miles west-southwest of Bushton and dissipated 2 miles west of Bushton.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS ICT issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:07 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:15 UTC and running to 07:00 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 05:49 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 Wichita radar (KICT), 131 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:28 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

96 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 97 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.