EF1 tornado, Tipton, 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 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

April 14, 2012

Touchdown

2:03 PM CDT (19:03 UTC)

Lifted

2:12 PM CDT (19:12 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Mitchell County

Touchdown point

39.273, -98.492

Lift-off point

39.324, -98.456

Record number

1204141303-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GID, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Est start of TOR. Some tree damage east side of cemetary.
• Extensive tree damage noted from a distance.
• Anchored garage walls lost. Most of tin roof removed from hog shed. Several old outbuildings destroyed. 6 inch tree limbs broken.
• May have been from RFD. Farmstead damage to outbuilding w/part of roof tin blown due east 100 yards.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Two distinct rounds of severe thunderstorms raked across the six-county area on this Saturday, resulting in several reports of large hail and damaging winds along with one EF1 tornado. However, considering that the entire area spent the day under its only High Risk convective outlook of the spring from the Storm Prediction Center, the situation could have been worse. No injuries were reported in this portion of North Central Kansas, and all significant, long-track tornadoes in the region remained just to the south across central and southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma. In the local area, the lone EF1 tornado touched down shortly after 2 PM CDT in western Mitchell County and tracked along a four-mile path just south of Tipton, destroying a few outbuilding and garages along the way. This tornado was rain-wrapped, and associated with a large high-precipitation supercell that moved northeast out of central Kansas. ||The first round of multiple severe storms lifted across the area from southwest to northeast mainly between 1130 AM and 330 PM CDT, with Mitchell County bearing the brunt of the activity. In addition to the tornado near Tipton, other storm reports included downed power lines near Glen Elder and estimated 60 MPH winds in Beloit. After these storms exited the area to the north and east, a lull of several hours ensued before the second round of scattered severe storms raced northward across the area between 730 PM and 10 PM CDT. Although these storms were not tornadic, severe weather reports included ping pong ball size hail in far southern Osborne County and quarter size hail in or near Phillipsburg, Kensington and Burr Oak, among other places. By 1030 PM CDT, storms had all but exited the local area for the night, although severe weather continued for nearby areas to the north, south and east. Although significant flooding was not an issue from this event, much of the area measured between 1-3 inches of rain, with one of the highest totals of 3.56 inches in Beloit. ||This severe weather outbreak was driven by a classic synoptic setup, as a powerful mid-upper level trough approached the Central Plains from the Four Corners region, featuring a 300 millibar jet streak in excess of 110 knots. At the surface, low pressure deepened over the course of the day, registering around 992 millibars by early evening over northwest Kansas. A well-defined warm front extended east from this low across south central Nebraska, as a sharpening dryline took shape along a line from southwest Nebraska to far western Oklahoma. With a strengthening and veering wind profile with height, shear parameters were quite supportive of significant severe weather. Around the time of the tornado near Tipton, mesoscale severe weather parameters featured around 2000 J/Kg mixed layer CAPE, 50-60 knots of deep layer vertical wind shear and 30-40 knots of surface-to-1 kilometer low level vertical shear. In addition, surface-to-1 kilometer storm relative helicity increased into at least the 300-500 m2/s2 range during the afternoon and evening hours, promoting a volatile environment for potentially strong, long-track tornadoes. Fortunately for this portion of North Central Kansas, most severe storms were less isolated than nearby tornadic supercells to the south, allowing storm scale interference to likely mitigate what could have been a more significant tornado event. ||On a regional and even national level, this was one of the most anticipated and well-advertised Central Plains tornado outbreaks ever. Although the majority of North Central Kansas was not in a High Risk outlook from the Storm Prediction Center until the early morning hours of the 14th, other parts of Kansas and Oklahoma were placed under a High Risk early on the 13th, marking the first time SPC ever issued a High Risk forecast so far in advance.

This tornado touched down approximately 3 miles south of Tipton, crossed Highway 181 before lifting approximately 1 mile southeast of Tipton. Along its path, trees up to 4 ft in diameter were damaged or destroyed, outbuildings and garages were damaged or destroyed, homes suffered roof and siding damage and power poles were tipped or blown down completely. The maximum wind speed was estimated at 95 mph.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:57 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:24 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:47 UTC and running to 22:29 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 0.45 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:21 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.

Russell (RSL), 56 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), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:01 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.