EF1 tornado, Palco, Kansas, May 29, 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 29, 2008

Touchdown

6:02 PM CDT (23:02 UTC)

Lifted

6:04 PM CDT (23:04 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.8 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

Crop damage

$100,000

County

Rooks County

Touchdown point

39.205, -99.605

Lift-off point

39.207, -99.558

Record number

0805291702-02

A significant severe weather outbreak occurred during the afternoon and evening of May 29th. Several tornadoes were reported from south of Palco in Rooks County to community of Jewell in Jewell County. On tornado inflected significant damage to the community of Jewell, including destroying the town���s caf�� and water tower. Several homes in rural areas of Mitchell and Jewell Counties were damaged or destroyed. The town of Woodston in eastern Rooks County also had a twister move through the community; luckily damage was not as severe. All together eight tornadoes occurred in this part of north-central Kansas and no critical injuries were reported. Other areas of north-central Kansas also saw hail and heavy rains from the storms. An area between Webster Lake and Stockton in Rooks County had hail up to the size of baseballs. The hail damaged windows and siding of homes along the storms path. In addition to the tornadoes, hail and wind, thunderstorms dumped several inches of rain across the Solomon River valleys. This resulted in some flooding of rural roads and area creeks and rivers.

This tornado touched down southwest of Palco and tracked east for 2 miles. Along its path, the tornado damaged four farms. The damage was primarily confined to outbuildings, garages, and trees. The most significant damage was a wood framed metal building, which was completely destroyed and rated as EF 1 with wind speeds to 105 mph.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:54 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:33 UTC and running to 03:00 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 0.10 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.

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.

Hill_city (HLC), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 158 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:00 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

37 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.