EF3 tornado, Joy to Hudson, Kansas, April 14, 2012

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

April 14, 2012

Touchdown

8:27 PM CDT (01:27 UTC)

Lifted

9:10 PM CDT (02:10 UTC)

On the ground

43 minutes

Path length

48.0 miles (77.3 km)

Path width

1,720 yards (1573 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Kiowa, Edwards and Stafford counties

Touchdown point

37.613, -99.376

Lift-off point

37.980, -98.882

Record number

1204141927-01

A vigorous upper level system combined with copious moisture and an advancing warm front to produce widespread thunderstorms, some producing tornadoes.

This strong tornado developed west of Greensburg and became intense by the time it crossed into Edwards county at 842 PM CDT. In Kiowa county it did EF3 damage. Damage was done to outbuildings, trees, power lines, farm machinery and pivot irrigation sprinklers. The ground was scoured in a field near the Edwards/Kiowa county line.

This EF3 tornado moved out of Kiowa county at 842 PM CDT and did considerable damage to a house, trees, power poles, pivot irrigation sprinkler and outbuildings and machinery. There was also considerable ground scouring in one wheat field. This tornado moved into Stafford county at 901 PM CDT and then shifted a little east towards the end of its existence and passed just south of Macksville. As the tornado was dissipating, a new and powerful tornado developed just to the southeast of Macksville.

This tornado moved out of Edwards county at 901 PM CDT and as it did it began to shift a little east passing just east of Macksville. In Stafford county there was considerable damage to pivot sprinklers, trees and outbuildings.

This monster tornado developed just southeast of a dissipating tornado near Macksville and then moved in a northeasterly direction. However during it's life cycle, it turned north briefly, then east briefly and then finally it moved on a steady northeast path. It narrowly missed Hudson to the south but did move across the Quivira National Refuge before moving into Rice county at 9:45 PM CDT. Damage was done to a few farm houses, outbuildings and equipment, trees, power poles and pivot irrigation systems.

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

24 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:03 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:26 UTC and running to 06:40 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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 Dodge City radar (KDDC), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:26 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 2012 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

83 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 84 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.