Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2010

EF0 tornado, Collyer, Kansas, May 25, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 5.9 miles across Trego County on May 25, 2010, touching down at 10:04 PM CDT and reaching 150 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
May 25, 2010
Touchdown
10:04 PM CDT (03:04 UTC)
Lifted
10:12 PM CDT (03:12 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
5.9 miles (9.5 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Trego County
Touchdown point
38.836, -100.152
Lift-off point
38.901, -100.100
Record number
1005252104-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak s/wv through helped to promote surface cyclogenesis during the day which helped to trigger thunderstorm development.

The tornado moved out of Gove county and then the tornado turned north as it occluded but never did strike anything to damage.

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
21:41 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchGLD
00:22 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningGLD
00:49 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningGLD
00:52 UTC04:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningGLD
01:41 UTC02:18 UTCTornado WarningGLD

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 00:58 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

3.1 hours before the tornado, 124 km from the path. May 26, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2010-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1417 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 1345 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2010-05-26The 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 6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1417 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2086 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1345 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
7.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

8.9 hours after it, 124 km from the path. May 26, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2010-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 791 joules per kilogram, CIN -35, lifted condensation level 620 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2010-05-26The 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 132 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.193958Sfc1 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
791 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35 J/kg
Surface CAPE
143 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
620 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
132 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
149 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 124 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:05 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
01:06 UTCTORNADO4 Ne The Monument RocksGove, KS
01:14 UTCTORNADO6 Ne The Monument RocksGove, KSDESCRIBED AS LARGE TORNADO AND RAIN WRAPPED
01:20 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD10 Sw GoveGove, KS
01:20 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD6 Ne The Monument RocksGove, KS
01:27 UTCTORNADO9 Sw GoveGove, KSRELAYED BY PUBLIC DESCRIBED AS A VERY LARGE TORNADO
01:28 UTCTORNADO8 Ssw GoveGove, KS
01:48 UTCTORNADO10 Se GoveGove, KS
02:10 UTCTORNADO9 S CollyerTrego, KSTHE TORNADO WAS MOVING EAST AT 35 MPH. CORRECTED TIME AND MOVEMENT.
02:20 UTCFLASH FLOOD10 Se GoveGove, KS
02:22 UTCTORNADO9 S CollyerTrego, KSTHE TORNADO WAS MOVING EAST AT 15 MPH.
03:22 UTCTORNADO3 S EllisEllis, KSTORNADO REPORTED NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF THE ELLIS BLACKTOP AND AIRBASE ROAD.
03:22 UTCTORNADO9 E Cedar BluffEllis, KSTORNADO REPORTED NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF THE ELLIS BLACKTOP AND ANTONINO ROAD.
03:32 UTCTORNADO6 W HaysEllis, KS

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 25, 2010

29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2511:30 AM CDTEF0Live Oak, TX0.225$5,000
May 252:10 PM CDTEF0Peoria, IL0.715
May 253:13 PM MDTEF0Roosevelt, NM0.310
May 253:31 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.050
May 253:31 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.175
May 253:32 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.175
May 253:37 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.4100
May 253:41 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.250
May 253:48 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.150
May 253:48 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.350
May 253:55 PM MDTEF0Curry, NM0.110
May 253:55 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.375
May 253:56 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.150
May 253:56 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.250
May 254:07 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO1.275
May 254:18 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.250
May 255:17 PM MDTEF0Greeley, KS0.810
May 255:20 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.150
May 255:49 PM MDTEF0Greeley, KS0.625
May 257:52 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX0.250
May 258:06 PM CDTEF0Gove, KS0.310
May 258:11 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX0.120
May 258:14 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX0.120
May 258:14 PM CDTEF0Gove, KS4.875
May 258:26 PM CDTEF1Gove, KS21.375$23,000
May 258:44 PM CDTEF1Gove, KS9.950$25,000
May 257:52 PM MDTEF0Baca, CO1.175$10,000
May 258:00 PM MDTEF1Baca, CO2.5300$5,000
May 2510:20 PM CDTEF0Ellis, KS6.975

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.