Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2008

EF0 tornado, Johnson, Kansas, November 10, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 2.9 miles across Stanton County on November 10, 2008, touching down at 3:23 PM CST and reaching 200 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 mphthis tornado

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    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
EF0
Date
November 10, 2008
Touchdown
3:23 PM CST (21:23 UTC)
Lifted
3:33 PM CST (21:33 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
2.9 miles (4.7 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Stanton County
Touchdown point
37.590, -101.779
Lift-off point
37.632, -101.772
Record number
0811101523-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong upper storm combined with just the right setup at the surface to produce a sizable tornado despite temperatures only in the 40s to around 50.

The tornado passed just west of the landfill and winds were estimated to be 70 mph at the landfill. Hail covered the ground during the event.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:17 UTC22:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
21:26 UTC21:44 UTCTornado WarningDDC

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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), 12:00Z

9.4 hours before the tornado, 166 km from the path. November 10, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2008-11-10Temperature 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 -81575, lifted condensation level 864 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2008-11-10The 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 244 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
-81575 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
864 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
244 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
231 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

2.6 hours after it, 166 km from the path. November 11, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2008-11-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 35 joules per kilogram, CIN -170, lifted condensation level 604 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2008-11-11The 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 265 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 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
35 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-170 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
604 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
265 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
303 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Elkhart (EHA), 69 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:28 UTC170° 14 kt
19:48 UTC5939190° 11 kt
20:08 UTC5839190° 12 kt
20:28 UTC210° 8 kt
20:48 UTC5931.1200° 12 kt
21:08 UTC6027.14220° 18 kt
21:28 UTC60.826.6220° 17 kt
21:48 UTC6127.14200° 11 kt
22:08 UTC5824210° 18 kt
22:28 UTC5530270° 18 kt
22:48 UTC5236.14290° 17 kt
23:08 UTC4936.14300° 13 kt

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 160 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:23 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
21:14 UTCHAIL 1Johnson CityStanton, KSTHEY ARE RECEIVING PEA TO NICKLE TO QUARTER SIZED HAIL.
21:25 UTCHAIL 12 Nnw Johnson CityStanton, KS
21:27 UTCTORNADO4 Nw Johnson CityStanton, KSREPORT STATED THERE WAS A LARGE TORNADO ON THE GROUND 4 TO 5 MILES NORTHWEST OF JOHNSON.
21:33 UTCTORNADO3 Nw Johnson CityStanton, KSTHIS REPORT STATED A LARGE TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND 3 TO 3.5 MILES NORTHWEST OF JOHNSON.
22:25 UTCHAIL 0.8815 Sw LakinKearny, KS

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

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.