Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2009

EF0 tornado, Hesston, Kansas, March 7, 2009

Name: EF0 tornado, Hesston, Kansas, March 7, 2009
Start: 2009-03-07T23:15:00.000Z
End: 2009-03-07T23:18:00.000Z
Location: Hesston, Kansas

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Harvey County on March 7, 2009, touching down at 5:15 PM CST and reaching 75 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: March 7, 2009
Touchdown: 5:15 PM CST (23:15 UTC)
Lifted: 5:18 PM CST (23:18 UTC)
On the ground: 3 minutes
Path length: 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width: 75 yards (69 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
County: Harvey County
Touchdown point: 38.140, -97.550
Lift-off point: 38.142, -97.542
Record number: 0903071715-01

What the Weather Service recorded

The interaction of a quasistationary front and a dryline lead to discrete supercells developing across portions of Central and South Central Kansas during the late afternoon and evening hours of March 7th, 2009. Brief tornado touchdowns occured just to the south of Hutchinson with the supercells along with hail up to golfball size.

A brief tornado touchdown occured in open country.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Wichita, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Mar 7, 3:22 PM CST, 1 hour 53 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 7, 3:22 PM CST, 1 hour 53 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
322 PM CST SAT MAR 7 2009

.DISCUSSION...

TONIGHT:
FRONT AND SEVERE WEATHER POTENTIAL THE MAIN CONCERN THIS EVENING.
IMPRESSIVE SHEAR...WHICH SHOULD MAKE UP FOR MODEST INSTABILITY.
SUSPECT PRIMARY THREAT WILL BE HAIL EARLY ON WITH THE MORE
DISCRETE/ROTATING CELLS. LESS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT SEVERE CHANCES LATER
ON. WITH WIDESPREAD DIFFLUENCE AND UPPER FLOW MORE PARALLEL TO
FRONT...SUSPECT STORMS WILL GO LINEAR THEN TURN INTO AREA AS THEY
PROGRESS EWD. ADJUSTED HOURLY TEMPERATURES TO REFLECT COLD AIR
ADVECTION ALREADY EVIDENT IN NEBRASKA AND INCREASING DEW
POINTS AND BRISK WINDS AHEAD OF FRONT IN SOUTHEAST KS THIS
EVENING.

SUN:
RELATIVELY QUIET DAY IN STORE WITH DRIER AIR BEHIND FRONT. SOME
INCREASE IN CIRRUS ACROSS THE SOUTH DURING THE AFTERNOON...BUT NO
SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON MAXES ANTICIPATED.

SUN NIGHT-MON:
LAST COUPLE OF MODEL RUNS HAVE STARTED A TREND FOR MORE RAPID
RETURN OF LOW LEVEL MOISTURE. THIS WILL RESULT IN MORE CLOUDS/
WARMER MINIMUMS NEAR THE OK BORDER SUN NIGHT. TEMPERATURES ALSO
WILL BE TRICKY ON MON WITH FAIRLY WARM TEMPERATURES ALOFT BUT
A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF CLOUDS EAST OF I-35 THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
GIVEN MAGNITUDE OF MOISTURE RETURN...SMALL PROBABILITY OF
PRECIPITATION APPEAR JUSTIFIED FOR SOUTHEAST KS. MOISTURE CONTINUES
TO SURGE NORTH MON NIGHT AND HAVE KEPT PROBABILITY OF PRECIPITATION
GOING AND RAISED MINIMUMS SUN NIGHT AS WELL.

TUE:
OUTSIDE CHANCE PRECIPITATION COULD STILL BE ONGOING AT 1200 UTC
IN EXTREME SOUTHEAST KS...BUT CHANCES SHOULD QUICKLY WANE DURING
THE MORNING. TEMPERATURES EXTREMELY TRICKY WITH GLOBAL FORECAST
SYSTEM MODEL/EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR MEDIUM RANGE WEATHER FORECASTS
MODEL OUT OF PHASE WITH EACH OTHER AND FLIP-FLOPPING FROM RUN TO
RUN. CURRENTLY THE EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR MEDIUM RANGE WEATHER
FORECASTS MODEL IS NOW COLDER WITH FRONT PUSHING THROUGH CENTRAL
KS AT THE ONSET...WITH GLOBAL FORECAST SYSTEM MODEL LAGGING
SEVERAL HOURS BEHIND. POTENTIAL FOR QUASI-STEADY OR FALLING
TEMPERATURES IN CENTRAL KS. IF COLD AIR IS SHUNTED MORE EAST THAN
SOUTH...TEMPERATURES COULD SOAR IN THE DRY/DOWNSLOPE REGIME.
LARGE POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT TEMPERATURE ERRORS THIS PERIOD.
-HOWERTON

WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY:
THE GFS AND ECMWF ARE IN FAIRLY GOOD AGREEMENT IN A COOL DOWN FOR
THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK AS THE CANADIAN HIGH PRESSURE SETTLES INTO
THE AREA. WHILE EARLIER SOLUTIONS OF THE ECMWF WERE BRINGING
PRECIPITATION INTO THE CWA...THE 12Z SOLUTION HAS TRENDED TOWARD
THE GFS...KEEPING THE CHANCES OF PRECIPITATION SOUTH OF THE
KANSAS/OKLAHOMA STATE LINE. THE GFS HAS MAINTAINED A FAIRLY STEADY
SOLUTION THROUGHOUT THE PREVIOUS FEW RUNS...SO HAVE KEPT POPS OUT OF
THE AREA AT THIS TIME.  BOTH MODELS ARE ALSO INCREASING THE STRENGTH
OF THE CANADIAN HIGH...AND ITS EXPANSE SOUTHWARD IS PUSHING TEMPS
DOWN...FORECAST REFLECTS THIS WITH COOLER TEMPS FOR WEDNESDAY THROUGH
THURSDAY.

FRIDAY-SATURDAY:
WHILE THE MEDIUM RANGE MODELS ARE IN FAIRLY GOOD AGREEMENT FOR
MID-WEEK...THEY DO NOT CONTINUE THAT TREND FOR THE END OF THE
WEEK. THE GFS AND ECMWF ARE SO DIFFERENT AT THIS POINT...THAT
DECIDED TO GO WITH HPC FOR THE PERIOD. TEMPS REMAIN NEAR NORMALS...
WITH NO SERIOUS CHANCES OF PRECIPITATION AT THIS POINT IN TIME.

BILLINGS

&&

.AVIATION...18Z TAFS KRSL/KSLN/KHUT/KICT/KCNU
A WARM FRONT THAT STRETCHES FROM NEAR KGBD TO KSLN WILL SLOWLY
MOVE SOUTHEASTWARD AS A COLD FRONT LATER TODAY AND TONIGHT.
THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP LATER THIS
AFTERNOON...HOWEVER LOCATION OF INITIATION WILL DEPEND WHERE THE
FRONT IS AT THE TIME. KCNU HAS THE BEST CHANCE FOR
THUNDERSTORMS...AND WITH GREATER UNCERTAINTY AT KHUT AND KICT
WILL KEEP VCTS RATHER THAN TSRA...AND ONLY CB MENTIONED AT KSLN.
SKIES WILL BECOME CLEAR SUNDAY MORNING.

SCHRECK

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
WICHITA-KICT    41  63  45  69 /  50  10   0  10
HUTCHINSON      37  62  42  71 /  40  10   0  10
NEWTON          38  61  41  67 /  50  10   0  10
ELDORADO        42  62  42  67 /  50  10   0  10
WINFIELD-KWLD   46  64  48  71 /  40  10   0  20
RUSSELL         31  61  35  70 /  20  10   0  10
GREAT BEND      33  62  38  70 /  20  10   0  10
SALINA          36  61  41  69 /  30  10   0  10
MCPHERSON       37  61  41  69 /  30  10   0  10
COFFEYVILLE     54  64  44  69 /  60  10   0  30
CHANUTE         50  61  41  67 /  60  10   0  30
IOLA            48  60  40  67 /  60  10   0  30
PARSONS-KPPF    52  63  43  68 /  60  10   0  30

&&

.ICT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
NONE.
&&

Hazardous weather outlook, Mar 7, 4:21 PM CST, 54 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
421 PM CST SAT MAR 7 2009

KSZ032-033-047>053-067>072-082-083-091>096-098>100-082230-
RUSSELL-LINCOLN-BARTON-ELLSWORTH-SALINE-RICE-MCPHERSON-MARION-CHASE-
RENO-HARVEY-BUTLER-GREENWOOD-WOODSON-ALLEN-KINGMAN-SEDGWICK-HARPER-
SUMNER-COWLEY-ELK-WILSON-NEOSHO-CHAUTAUQUA-MONTGOMERY-LABETTE-
421 PM CST SAT MAR 7 2009

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL KANSAS...
SOUTH CENTRAL KANSAS AND SOUTHEAST KANSAS.

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT

THERE IS A CHANCE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS MOST OF SOUTH
CENTRAL AND PARTS OF SOUTHEAST KANSAS THIS EVENING INTO TONIGHT.
THE MAIN SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WILL GENERALLY BE LOCATED SOUTH AND
EAST OF A LINE FROM HILLSBORO TO HUTCHINSON TO ANTHONY. THE MAIN
THREAT WILL BE UP TO GOLFBALL SIZED HAIL AND ISOLATED DAMAGING
WIND GUSTS TO 60 MPH. AN ISOLATED TORNADO WILL BE POSSIBLE EARLY
THIS EVENING.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

THERE IS ANOTHER CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS FROM MONDAY THROUGH TUESDAY
FOR AREAS EAST OF THE KANSAS TURNPIKE.

FIRE DANGER WILL BE HIGH TO VERY HIGH OVER THE ENTIRE AREA FROM
MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SKYWARN SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED THIS EVENING AND TONIGHT
ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST KANSAS.

&&

FOR A GRAPHICAL VERSION OF THIS INFORMATION...SEE OUR
WEBPAGE AT (LOWERCASE) HTTP://WEATHER.GOV/WICHITA/HWO/HWO.PHP

HOWERTON

In the hours before

Local storm report, Mar 7, 4:33 PM CST, 42 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 7, 4:36 PM CST, 39 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
436 PM CST SAT MAR 07 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0428 PM     TORNADO          1 W HUTCHINSON          38.07N 97.93W
03/07/2009                   RENO               KS   STORM CHASER

            TORNADO REPORTED ON THE GROUND 1/2 MILE WEST OF HWY 96
            NEAR HUTCHINSON.

&&

JMB

Local storm report, Mar 7, 4:44 PM CST, 31 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
444 PM CST SAT MAR 07 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0439 PM     TSTM WND GST     HUTCHINSON AIRPORT      38.07N 97.87W
03/07/2009  M59 MPH          RENO               KS   ASOS

&&

HOWERTON

Local storm report, Mar 7, 5:00 PM CST, 15 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
500 PM CST SAT MAR 07 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0457 PM     HAIL             MCPHERSON               38.37N 97.66W
03/07/2009  E0.50 INCH       MCPHERSON          KS   TRAINED SPOTTER

            HAIL COVERING THE GROUND ON MAINSTREET IN MCPHERSON

&&

JMB

Local storm report, Mar 7, 5:07 PM CST, 8 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
507 PM CST SAT MAR 07 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0436 PM     TORNADO          1 S HUTCHINSON AIRPORT  38.05N 97.87W
03/07/2009                   RENO               KS   OFFICIAL NWS OBS

            HUTCHINSON TOWER OBSERVER REPORTS TORNADO 1 M SOUTH OF
            TOWER MOVING RAPIDLY EAST.

&&

JMB

Special weather statement, Mar 7, 5:14 PM CST, 1 minute before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
514 PM CST SAT MAR 7 2009

KSZ067-082-072345-
KINGMAN-RENO-
514 PM CST SAT MAR 7 2009

...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WICHITA HAS ISSUED A SIGNIFICANT
WEATHER ALERT FOR KINGMAN AND RENO COUNTIES...

AT 509 PM CST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS WERE TRACKING
A STRONG THUNDERSTORM NEAR PENALOSA...OR 11 MILES WEST OF
KINGMAN...AND MOVING EAST TO NORTHEAST AT 40 MPH.

PENNY TO NICKEL SIZE HAIL...AND WINDS TO 50 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH
THIS STORM.

BE PREPARED TO TAKE SHELTER IN THE EVENT THESE STORMS INTENSIFY AND
BECOME SEVERE, OR A WARNING IS ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER
SERVICE.

KLEINSASSER

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.

Lamont, OK (KLMN), 12:00Z

11.3 hours before the tornado, 169 km from the path. March 7, 2009.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 33 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -490 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1287 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 290 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 287 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lamont, OK (KLMN), 00:00Z

0.7 hours after it, 169 km from the path. March 8, 2009.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 654 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -86 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 684 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1275 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 239 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 231 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.5
Supercell composite: 1.1
0-3 km lapse rate: 7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Newton (EWK), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Wichita radar (KICT), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:14 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2009 tornado in Kansas Every tornado in Kansas since 1950 Warnings in force in Kansas now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 7, 2009

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
March 7	4:13 PM CST	EF0	Reno, KS	1.3	75
March 7	4:28 PM CST	EF0	Reno, KS	0.8	75
March 7	4:36 PM CST	EF0	Reno, KS	0.5	75
March 7	6:18 PM CST	EF0	Barber, KS	0.0	20
March 7	7:21 PM CST	EF0	Harper, KS	0.5	75
March 7	7:30 PM CST	EF0	Harper, KS	0.5	75
March 7	8:10 PM CST	EF0	Kingman, KS	0.7	75

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.