Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2007

EF1 tornado, Trousdale to Centerview, Kansas, May 5, 2007

From Trousdale to Centerview, this EF1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Edwards County on May 5, 2007, touching down at 7:50 PM CDT and reaching 50 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
May 5, 2007
Touchdown
7:50 PM CDT (00:50 UTC)
Lifted
7:52 PM CDT (00:52 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Edwards County
Touchdown point
37.810, -99.257
Lift-off point
37.828, -99.244
Record number
0705051850-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Unbelievably, an outbreak of tornadoes, some very large in size, raked the earth in basically the same area as the day before when Greensburg was nearly completely leveled. Although some of the tornadoes were large and apparently very strong, there was no loss of life on this day. A National Weather Service assessment team was in an area about 30 minutes before a tornado moved through. They also saw one tornado during the storm survey of damage that was produced the day before.

This tornado did EF1 damage to trees and pivot irrigation sprinklers. It occurred in very close proximately to a tornado less than 24 hours earlier. It moved into Pratt county at 1837 CST.

This tornado did EF1 damage to trees and a several pivot irrigation sprinklers.

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

The warnings

20 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:30 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:15 UTC and running to 02:12 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:08 UTC00:00 UTCWind AdvisoryDDC
17:15 UTC02:12 UTCTornado WatchDDC
19:38 UTC20:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
19:44 UTC20:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
22:13 UTC22:45 UTCTornado WarningDDC
22:30 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningDDC
23:01 UTC23:19 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
23:57 UTC00:11 UTCTornado WarningDDC
00:29 UTC00:34 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
00:30 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningDDC
00:31 UTC00:48 UTCTornado WarningDDC
00:38 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
01:31 UTC02:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
01:40 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
01:48 UTC02:15 UTCTornado WarningDDC
02:10 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningDDC
02:12 UTC06:24 UTCTornado WatchDDC
02:45 UTC03:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
03:31 UTC04:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
04:00 UTC04:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
09:53 UTC00:26 UTCFlood WatchDDC

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:05 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 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

0.8 hours before the tornado, 57 km from the path. May 6, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2007-05-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 981 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 1826 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2007-05-06The 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 -2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
981 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2270 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1826 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
198 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
8.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

11.2 hours after it, 57 km from the path. May 6, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2007-05-06Temperature 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 -20301, lifted condensation level 2141 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2007-05-06The 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 -103 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
-20301 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2141 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-103 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
156 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:51 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:48 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD9 Nw PrattPratt, KS
21:48 UTCTORNADO4 S ByersPratt, KSBRIEF TORNADO...DEBRIS CLOUD WAS EVIDENT BELOW A FUNNEL.
22:20 UTCTORNADO4 Sw StaffordStafford, KSBRIEF TOUCHDOWN. MULTIPLE REPORTS RECEIVED
22:22 UTCTSTM WND DMG8 W NeolaStafford, KSPOSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE. CENTER PIVOT IRRIGATION SPRINKLER FLIPPED AND TREE DAMAGE ACROSS ROAD.
22:30 UTCTORNADO2 Ssw StaffordStafford, KSLARGE WALL CLOUD WITH MULTIPLE VORTICES.
22:40 UTCHAIL 1.5KinsleyEdwards, KS
22:45 UTCHAIL 1KinsleyEdwards, KS
22:55 UTCHAIL 1BucklinFord, KS
23:05 UTCFLOOD5 N BucklinFord, KSWATER OVER OUTLAW RD. BARELY PASSIBLE.
23:05 UTCTORNADO2 W BelpreEdwards, KS
23:10 UTCHAIL 1.753 Se GarfieldPawnee, KS
23:12 UTCTORNADO2 N BelpreEdwards, KSWRAPPED IN RAIN
23:13 UTCHAIL 2.756 S LarnedPawnee, KSPERIODIC BRIEF FUNNELS HAVE BEEN REPORTED IN THIS AREA AS WELL. RELAYED BY PAWNEE COUNTY EM
23:25 UTCHAIL 1.75LarnedPawnee, KSIN THE TOWN.
23:38 UTCHAIL 1.753 Nnw Pawnee RockBarton, KS
23:42 UTCHAIL 13 Ne Pawnee RockBarton, KS
00:15 UTCHAIL 16 W GreensburgKiowa, KS
00:15 UTCTORNADO5 Sw HavilandKiowa, KSKWCH MEDIA FROM ALONG HIGHWAY 54...BRIEF TOUCHDOWNS.
00:27 UTCHAIL 0.754 Ne BucklinFord, KS
00:33 UTCHAIL 12 S TrousdaleEdwards, KS
00:39 UTCTORNADOHopewellPratt, KSDAMAGE REPORTED FROM PRATT COUNTY EM JUST EAST OF HOPEWELL. DAMAGE EXTENT UNCLEAR
00:42 UTCTORNADO1 N HopewellStafford, KSEXTENSIVE TREE DAMAGE AND ROOF BLOWN OFF A HOUSE. ROADS NEARLY IMPASSABLE DUE TO TREE DAMAGE. TIME ESTIMATE OF TORNADO PASSAGE.
01:00 UTCTORNADOMacksvilleStafford, KSLARGE HALF MILE WIDE TORNADO VERY NEAR MACKSVILLE...MAY HAVE GONE THROUGH MACKSVILLE...NO DETAILS AT THIS TIME HOWEVER. MULTIPLE REPORTS OF THIS TORNADO AND ITS WIDTH.
01:01 UTCTORNADO1 E MacksvilleStafford, KS
01:02 UTCTORNADO2 Se MacksvilleStafford, KSESTIMATED LOCATION.
01:15 UTCFLOODMacksvilleStafford, KSA NUMBER OF ROADS REPORTED FLOODED CURB TO CURB.
01:15 UTCHAIL 1.25MacksvilleStafford, KSHAIL QUARTER TO HALF DOLLAR SIZED HAIL
01:15 UTCTORNADO6 N DillwynStafford, KSTWO TORNADOES ON GROUND AT THE SAME TIME. LARGE WEDGE TORNADO 6 MILES NORTH OF DILLWYN...ANOTHER MULTI VORTEX TORNADO WAS SPOTTED ABOUT HALF MILE EAST OF THE WEDGE TORNADO. INDICATIONS FROM STAFFORD COUNTY EM ARE THAT TH
01:33 UTCTORNADO3 Nw St. JohnStafford, KSTWO LARGE WEDGE TORNADOES APPARENTLY ON THE GROUND AT THE SAME TIME ABOUT 3 MILES NORTHWEST OF SAINT JOHN. STORM CHASER REPORTS.
01:37 UTCTORNADO2 W GreensburgKiowa, KSTORNADO ON THE GROUND MOVING EAST.
01:49 UTCTORNADO2 E SewardStafford, KSLARGE TORNADO STILL ON THE GROUND CROSSING HIGHWAY 281 AT K-19 EAST OF SEWARD. KDOT REPORT. RELAYED BY NWS WICHITA.
02:03 UTCHAIL 15 N BucklinFord, KS
02:04 UTCTORNADOTrousdaleEdwards, KSTORNADO OVER CENTER OF TROUSDALE
02:23 UTCTSTM WND GST 75BelpreEdwards, KS70 TO 80 MPH WINDS ESTIMATED IN BELPRE
02:23 UTCHAIL 112 N BucklinFord, KS
02:51 UTCTORNADO3 Ene SewardStafford, KSLOCATED NEAR MILE POST 87 ON HIGHWAY 281
03:20 UTCHAIL 0.8812 N BucklinFord, KSHARD RAIN.
03:22 UTCHAIL 13 Sw BucklinFord, KS
03:25 UTCFLASH FLOODPawnee RockBarton, KSBARTON COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED 1 FOOT OF WATER ACROSS HIGHWAY 56 AT PAWNEE ROCK.

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

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 May 5, 2007

96 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 51:21 AM CDTEF1Barton, KS5.5100$2.0 million
May 51:28 AM CDTEF1Barton, KS6.2125$57,000
May 51:46 AM CDTEF1Barton, KS5.2100$40,000
May 52:06 AM CDTEF0Ellsworth, KS0.540$13,000
May 512:23 PM CDTEF1Custer, NE20.6150$150,000
May 511:57 AM MDTEF0Logan, CO0.150
May 51:03 PM CDTEF1Custer, NE40.7220$40,000
May 52:05 PM CDTEF1Brown, NE14.3220$40,000
May 53:48 PM CDTEF0Knox, NE11.4100$10,000
May 53:57 PM CDTEF1Keya Paha, NE16.71001$100,000
May 54:31 PM CDTEF1Miner, SD0.150$2,000
May 54:33 PM CDTEF2Bon Homme, SD3.5100$50,000
May 54:35 PM CDTEF2Miner, SD1.0100$20,000
May 54:43 PM CDTEF2Bon Homme, SD4.0100$100,000
May 54:48 PM CDTEF0Pratt, KS1.430
May 54:58 PM CDTEF1Saline, NE18.3400
May 54:59 PM CDTEF1Pratt, KS11.1150
May 55:00 PM CDTEF0Hutchinson, SD0.250
May 55:10 PM CDTEF0Hutchinson, SD0.150
May 55:15 PM CDTEF0Knox, NE1.5200
May 55:16 PM CDTEF1Hutchinson, SD5.0100
May 55:17 PM CDTEF0Knox, NE3.0100
May 55:20 PM CDTEF1Hanson, SD1.9100$10,000
May 55:24 PM CDTEF0Knox, NE5.3150
May 55:28 PM CDTEF1Knox, NE8.9440
May 55:36 PM CDTEF0Stafford, KS4.5100
May 55:41 PM CDTEF1Hanson, SD0.5100$10,000
May 55:43 PM CDTEF2Knox, NE5.55003$1.0 million
May 55:45 PM CDTEF0Knox, NE3.5100
May 55:50 PM CDTEF0Davison, SD3.550
May 55:52 PM CDTEF0Yankton, SD0.150
May 55:52 PM CDTEF1Yankton, SD1.01001$100,000
May 55:59 PM CDTEF2Osborne, KS7.57511$150,000
May 56:00 PM CDTEF0Edwards, KS2.475
May 56:05 PM CDTEF3Aurora, SD4.0200$300,000
May 56:09 PM CDTEF0Rice, KS0.340
May 56:15 PM CDTEF1Sanborn, SD0.5100$20,000
May 56:15 PM CDTEF0Rice, KS1.540
May 56:17 PM CDTEF2Yankton, SD0.5100$100,000
May 56:30 PM CDTEF0Gregory, SD0.150
May 56:30 PM CDTEF0Gregory, SD0.150
May 56:33 PM CDTEF0Comanche, KS1.930
May 56:35 PM CDTEF0Charles Mix, SD0.150
May 56:40 PM CDTEF1Brule, SD0.5100
May 56:45 PM CDTEF0Barton, KS0.150
May 56:54 PM CDTEF0Barton, KS0.240
May 57:01 PM CDTEF2Edwards, KS2.775
May 57:02 PM CDTEF0Kiowa, KS7.875
May 57:09 PM CDTEF0Mills, IA4.080
May 57:20 PM CDTEF0Collingsworth, TX2.8100
May 57:22 PM CDTEF2Kiowa, KS26.9880
May 57:23 PM CDTEF2Hanson, SD10.5400$60,000
May 57:26 PM CDTEF0Kiowa, KS1.350
May 57:27 PM CDTEF1Collingsworth, TX7.0200
May 57:32 PM CDTEF1Barton, KS4.0100$60,000
May 57:40 PM CDTEF0Roger Mills, OK0.8100
May 57:47 PM CDTEF1Miner, SD0.2100$10,000
May 57:47 PM CDTEF0Miner, SD0.150
May 57:50 PM CDTEF1Fremont, IA11.3200
May 57:55 PM CDTEF0Stafford, KS1.350

All 97 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.