Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2008
EF0 tornado, Stockton Muni Arpt to Woodston, Kansas, April 24, 2008
From Stockton Muni Arpt to Woodston, this EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Rooks County on April 24, 2008, touching down at 10:50 PM CDT and reaching 10 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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, 2008
- Touchdown
- 10:50 PM CDT (03:50 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 10 yards (9 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Rooks County
- Touchdown point
- 39.400, -99.100
- Lift-off point
- 39.400, -99.100
- Record number
- 0804242150-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe thunderstorms developed during the evening hours across north-central Kansas and produced large hail, strong winds and heavy rains. Hail up to the size of softballs was reported west of Stockton where windows were broken, roofs and siding damaged and crops pummeled. A couple of brief tornados were reported to have touched down in Rooks County. One was south of Stockton and the other was near Woodston. No damage occurred with these. There were other reports of hail, mainly up to the size of golf balls, and wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph reported across the area. A tornado touched down north of Beloit in Mitchell County and traveled east. Several houses, outbuildings, grain bins, trees and power poles were damaged along the it���s path. This tornado crossed into Cloud County.
A brief tornado that occurred in open country.
A brief tornado touchdown was observed by a storm chaser.
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.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:05 UTC and running to 05:08 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:05 UTC | 05:08 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | GID |
| 02:41 UTC | 03:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID |
| 03:26 UTC | 04:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID |
| 04:16 UTC | 04:35 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID |
| 07:55 UTC | 16:58 UTC | Wind Advisory | GID |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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
3.8 hours before the tornado, 194 km from the path. April 25, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 68 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -137 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 184 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 3354 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 37 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 96 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 9.4 K/km
Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z
8.2 hours after it, 194 km from the path. April 25, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -83969 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 942 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 75 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -306 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -224 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.9 K/km
The surface observations
Phillipsburg (PHG), 42 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:53 UTC | 66 | 56 | 90° 13 kt | 1000.3 | ||
| 02:53 UTC | 62 | 58 | 350° 29 kt | 49 | 1002 | -TSRA BR SQ |
| 03:53 UTC | 62 | 57 | 40° 5 kt | 18 | 1002.4 | VCTS |
| 04:53 UTC | 49 | 45 | 10° 28 kt | 35 | 1002.7 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 117 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:49 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:51 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 5 E Hill City | Graham, KS | REPORTED BY KWCH |
| 03:05 UTC | HAIL 2.75 | 15 W Stockton | Rooks, KS | JUST EAST OF GRAHAM AND ROOKS COUNTY LINE ON HIGHWAY 24. |
| 03:05 UTC | HAIL 2.75 | 20 W Stockton | Graham, KS | JUST EAST OF GRAHAM AND ROOKS COUNTY LINE ON HIGHWAY 24. |
| 03:05 UTC | TSTM WND GST 80 | 2 W Nicodemus | Graham, KS | REPORTED BY KWCH |
| 03:23 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Webster State Park | Rooks, KS | |
| 03:27 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 8 W Stockton | Rooks, KS | HAIL COVERING HIGHWAY 24 |
| 03:35 UTC | TSTM WND GST 66 | Stockton | Rooks, KS | MEASURED BY KSNW WEATHER LAB AT STOCKTON GRADE SCHOOL. |
| 03:37 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 0 | Stockton | Rooks, KS | ROOKS EMS RPTD WIND SHIFT NW GUST 45-50 MPH |
| 03:37 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 50 | Stockton | Rooks, KS | ROOKS EMS RPTD WIND SHIFT NW GUST 45-50 MPH |
| 03:38 UTC | HAIL 4.25 | Stockton | Rooks, KS | QUARTER TO SOFTBALL SIZE HAIL WITH LOTS OF DAMAGE AND POWER OUTAGES. |
| 03:42 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Phillipsburg | Phillips, KS | |
| 03:42 UTC | TORNADO | 4 S Stockton | Rooks, KS | BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN |
| 03:50 UTC | TORNADO | 4 S Woodston | Rooks, KS | BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN OBSERVED BY STORM CHASER |
| 04:00 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Alton | Osborne, KS | |
| 04:09 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 4 E Plainville | Rooks, KS | ALONG HIGHWAY 18 FROM STORM CHASER |
| 04:31 UTC | HAIL 2 | 1 Nnw Osborne | Osborne, KS | |
| 04:35 UTC | TSTM WND GST 68 | Osborne | Osborne, KS | MEASURED BY KSNW WEATHER LAB AT OSBORNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. |
| 04:46 UTC | HAIL 1 | 4 W Cawker City | Osborne, KS | QUARTER SIZE HAIL ON HIGHWAY 24 ALONG MITCHELL AND OSBORNE COUNTY LINE |
| 04:51 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Phillipsburg | Phillips, KS | WINDS ESTIMATED AT 50 MPH AND HEAVY RAIN |
| 04:56 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | 8 W Kirwin | Phillips, KS | FROM KIRWIN RAWS OBSERVATION VIA MESOWEST. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 24, 2008
6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 24 | 3:30 PM MDT | EF0 | Custer, ID | 0.1 | 20 | $1,000 | ||
| April 24 | 4:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Kossuth, IA | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| April 24 | 8:21 PM CDT | EF0 | Hamilton, IA | 1.7 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| April 24 | 10:42 PM CDT | EF0 | Rooks, KS | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| April 24 | 12:23 AM CDT | EF2 | Mitchell, KS | 14.1 | 1,050 | $750,000 | ||
| April 24 | 12:50 AM CDT | EF1 | Nemaha, NE | 0.3 | 100 | $100,000 |
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.