EF1 tornado, Ellis to Codell, Kansas, May 23, 2008

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 23, 2008

Touchdown

9:08 PM CDT (02:08 UTC)

Lifted

9:20 PM CDT (02:20 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

4.3 miles (6.9 km)

Path width

450 yards (411 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

Crop damage

$200,000

Counties

Ellis and Rooks counties

Touchdown point

39.110, -99.462

Lift-off point

39.170, -99.430

Record number

0805232008-01

An anonymously strong upper level system allowed everything to come together at the surface to produced what is perhaps the biggest tornado outbreak to ever occur in the Dodge City CWA! Fifty-five tornadoes were documented during that afternoon and evening! Some of the tornadoes were very large and damaging. The character of the supercell thunderstorms that day had similarities to the storms that produced the Greensburg tornado a little over a year after. In fact there was one tornado that was just as large and perhaps could have been just as damaging that was headed towards the small Kiowa county town but fortunately turned and dissipated.

Large upper level trough over the western U.S. continued to eject energy out over the Central Plains, with a surface low remaining anchored over eastern Colorado with a stationary boundary draped east through the region. Storms once again initially developed during the late afternoon near the dry line over western Kansas and drifted east; with the increase of the low level jet helping storms which had developed along the stationary front continue on well into the late evening hours. In north-central Kansas, storms produced hail mainly one inch in diameter. Baseball sized hail was reported south of Zurick in southern Rooks County. A couple of brief tornadoes sat down in Rooks County. One tornado occurred just to the north of the Ellis/Rooks County line. This tornado snapped several power poles, damaged trees and an outbuilding. The second tornado started near Plainville and lifted just north of Codell. Several power poles were downed as well as trees damaged. It was another night of efficient storms in regard to rainfall, dropping several inches over portions of north-central Kansas, causing additional problems.

This tornado produced EF1 damage to outbuildings, a storage tank, power poles and houses in Ellis. A female was injured when she went out to get her horse and was hit by flying debris from the tornado.

This tornado moved north and then northwest. No damage was reported.

This tornado moved into Rooks county. It produced EF1 damage to trees and power lines on the Rooks/Ellis county line.

This tornado moved out of Trego county and did EF1 damage to trees.

The tornado entered from Ellis County and quickly dissipated. The tornado damaged some trees, snapped power poles and an outbuilding.

This was a brief tornado.

A brief touchdown was observed by local law enforcement. They were able to see a few flashes as power poles were snapped by the tornado.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:50 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:52 UTC and running to 06:15 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 00:55 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 Grand Island radar (KUEX), 157 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:06 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 2008 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

78 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 79 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.